How (and Why) I Collage the Sunday New York Times Newspaper

At the beginning of this whole pandemic situation, when we were officially quarantined and staying home for the foreseeable future, I knew I needed to figure out a way to document the times. I’ve always been a journaler and a writer and a storyteller at heart, but writing my own words about this weird season felt too daunting. The news online was overwhelming, and I didn’t know how to sift through it all or stay up to date without succumbing to total anxiety.

Enter: the newspaper!

I grew up in a family where the newspaper was delivered every day, and I loved reading the comics and the fun magazine inserts and even cutting out all the coupons for my mom as a chore. Even now, my parents still get physical newspapers delivered (although just on the weekends, I believe), and it felt like a good idea to do the same.

I had long heard of the high caliber of the NYT, and preferred national news over a local perspective (I wanted more of the bigger, broader scope). (ps— the NYT has a “lean left” bias, which tends to be generally in line with my worldview as well.)

I subscribed to a Sunday delivery of The New York Times, and decided to cut out interesting headlines, snippets, graphics and images, and whatever else caught my eye. I started a new journal, and made a weekly collage spread every Sunday. Quickly, I realized it was an awesome way for me to distill the news and events and climate of the world into a simple and interesting time capsule of sorts.

And so, my weekly NYT collage project began!

I’ve now made 21 collages, and don’t intend on stopping any time soon.

I posted a flip through video on my TikTok, and it went viral. YOU ALL. I never saw this coming, and it still blows my mind to see that video get over 105k views (and counting!!! what even!). But clearly, it struck a nerve, as we all are feeling how unprecedented these times are, and how badly we want to make sense of our world and wrap meaning around it all.

It’s been a really fun and meaningful project for me — one that helps me take in enough of the news to stay informed, but not too much where it overwhelms me, and lets me turn it all into something beautiful that tells a story to look back on for years to come. I highly encourage giving collages a try!