lucid's favorite photographer, uci alum pedro nieves, does a fashion photoshoot with fellow uci students as models! along with karen and larrenz, the shoot also features poet and longtime lucid contributor cassandra; janellee, photographer for issue 4's "the sandwich chronicles"; and the one and only helen from the issue 4 graduation story, "helen's everything, everywhere, all at once". pedro's got the gift. and if you don't know, now you know.

Fresh from finishing a Bachelor’s Degree, Feliz Aguilar examines the “unlevel playing field” of graduate school and wonders if, as a “first gen, disabled, working class student,” it is even worth applying.

Undergraduate Corbin Li writes about university as a time of reinvention–and escape from abuse.

Sharing their experiences with medical negligence, incarceration, and the long, sometimes harrowing journeys to get an education, UC Irvine students Lisandra and Ryan Rising talk with Lucid editor in chief Rachael Collins about the transformative potential of a community-centered approach to teaching and learning.

UC Irvine MA alumnx Martha Trujillo shares diaries she composed between the ages of 13 and 18. One of the most raw and real pieces of writing we’ve ever seen, the diaries function as documentation, poetry, art, and resistance.

Irvine Valley College undergraduate Samog-J Lemon reflects on a lifetime of memories that should have had her dad in them.