The NYC Affiliate of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
Chinatown, seven years old Mother and I in all-purpose store; blazing past packaged foods, school supplies, and walls of circuits and cords on our way to get next item on shopping list Glance to right as we enter another aisle. On the shelf just above eye-level, see packages of— is that money? Slow down as […]
MoreI am 16 years young. I hate the term “years old.” “I’m old. Thirty years old, to be exact.” You’re not old! I can’t wait to be that young! Thirty years: Count them! The year I was born, my parents opened up a business. It’s called Great Wall (how wondrous!), and it’s a Chinese eat-in/take-out […]
MoreThree children skipping over rocks, their bamboo slippers smack the gray gatherings of fine grains, their small lips parting wide for Mandarin shouts, pink zigs and pinker zags beneath inquisitive sensing, and upside-down bowls shatter, flying straight black hair into the wind
MoreWhen I looked down, I saw fifteen eyes staring back at me. Mr. Ethan, my conductor with the comforting Santa Claus mustache, had marked my score with hand-drawn eyes, saying, “These are the places we need to make eye contact.” Before the New York Concerto Competition winner’s concert, I felt nervously excited and took a […]
MoreIn my family, everyone plays baseball. It is not a choice. Although I played baseball, standing alone in the outfield wasn’t my idea of “teamwork.” It wasn’t until eight years ago, when I slipped off a 30-foot high diving board, falling face-first into Lake Wallenpaupack, that I had an epiphany. Swimming would be my sport.
MoreBongongongong…ommmmm…the loud gongs and soft chanting of Buddhist monks echoed through the temple. My beloved cousin Dasha, around two years older than I, was softly murmuring prayers with her incense as I struggled to stay awake. My own incense stick was expelling a spicy, warm cloud around my face. When praying and performing Buddhist rituals […]
MoreLife’s Sonata, Rondo Form In the hall, it is utterly silent and dark A little girl runs on stage, illuminated by a spotlight She will play a sonata, the form is called rondo. A cold introduction, then the exposition blossoms The piano’s lovely ivory keys call And her artistic fingers reply
More“What hope has a kitten in a town full of dogs?” pleads a wounded Cillian Murphy in Enda Walsh’s knockout one-man show Misterman, and the audience’s hearts bleed for him; of course, this is before we find out that the kitten in question has wicked claws. Murphy, a Cork-born Irish actor, is no stranger to […]
MoreAn unimposing, curly-haired young man in a gray sweatshirt sits at a table in a crowded bar. His features are boyish, perhaps sweet, and entirely at odds with the way he is currently drowning his dazed date in a merciless verbal barrage. As he tears through an exchange that is as whip-smart as it is […]
MoreThere is little more powerful than the frenzied anticipation of a fangirl, and that of yours truly over Quentin Tarantino’s bloody, imaginative new genre-blending romp, Inglourious Basterds, had reached fever pitch at the time of my (admittedly late) viewing. I brought in a notebook and pencil in lieu of popcorn, in order to make a […]
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