Archivos de Categoría: II Version

1st Place Riders’ complexions change as we cross invisible residential boundaries. Candy Crush colors explode, thumbs scroll; eyes on screens, not on each other’s otherness. Black and brown English High students jostle for the seat, cursing and laughing, liberated from lectures and pop quizzes. Condo-dwelling gentrifiers commute in wool slacks and sensible boots and concentrate […]

2nd Place / Giải Nhì Peddling along the Fens, I start to decompress, swapping COVID tests for crickets, heart monitors for mallards. This night was longer than most. A man with failing lungs had asked for his daughter. We cannot allow visitors, I’d said. He asked me to speak louder through my mask. Stopping at […]

3rd Place Last year, I finally devoted a day to walking the entire Emerald Necklace from start to finish. I began my journey at Franklin Park, and travelled through the Arboretum, across the Riverway, and down Commonwealth Avenue towards the Commons. I know the city streets well after a decade of living here, but I […]

1st Place YOUTH CATEGORY There’s a pharmacy away from Chinatown’s busier sector. It rests across the road from the cash-only bakery. When school lets out, some students amble into the bakery to purchase pork buns and egg tarts. Those that don’t enter, look both ways before running across the road into the pharmacy. A small […]

2nd Place YOUTH CATEGORY The day I graduated eighth grade was my fourth year living in Massachusetts. I had hoped I would feel like a girl stomping into big shoes and fighting for rights like everyone around me. The sun was warm on my green dress, stable ground beneath my Mary Janes. The school was […]

3rd Place YOUTH CATEGORY She hopes her Charlie Card has enough left to reach the train that’s arriving. The turnstile opens and she sighs in relief as she barrels down the steps of Ashmont T Station. She joins a pulsating crowd of humanity, languages and cultures passing through her ears like a game of catch. […]

Honorable Mentions / Mezon Onorab A hint of fall sent a chill through the air. The end of summer was ahead, but cricket was still on in Franklin Park. Pristine white uniforms that spoke in the language of gentility mixed with the varied & rough brogue of different Caribbean islands. Sometimes reggae music would float […]

Honorable Mentions I occasionally ring the church chimes at the Christian Science Center. I am not a professional musician, and I am an atheist. But, I grew up singing hymns and I love being able to contribute my own small part to the ambient soundtrack of the city on Sunday mornings. From where I sit […]

Honorable Mentions The Camberville Plant Lovers Facebook group saved my life. I am not exaggerating. A new neighborhood transplant mid-pandemic, I mapped the streets picking up plant cuttings in 93-degree heat. This is the only way I know how to navigate: Davis Square is a straight snake plant cutting, Rindge is a wilting swiss cheese […]

Honorable Mentions / 荣誉奖 / 榮譽獎 This time, the Chinatown vendor asks me how old I am. Nineteen, I say in hesitant Chinese, through a too-hot bite of a fresh pineapple bun I haven’t even paid for yet. She beams at me, kindness crinkling the corners of her eyes as she waves my money away. […]