Articles by Audrey Blinman

Poetry May 15, 2017

National Poetry Month

The following poems were submitted to The Phoenix Inquirer in honor of National Poetry Month. They are all written by Middle School students. PRISON BREAK By E.F. Books   I plot to prison break from this broken prison It’s essential to elude the corrupted system To release the chains ‘round my wrists is my decision Question How do they captivate me with such precision? Don’t see any shooting stars but I’m wishing That my imprisoned uncle could take me fishing, – I’ve risen Don’t get me wrong; I’m content My family owns our home but if we didn’t we could pay rent. No, we are scavenging for cents. We have clean water, unlike Flint. They ask where my happiness went It never left But Don’t Assume I’m dumb, blind or deaf Don’t Assume I’ve never seen wealth Don’t Assume I’ve experienced an abundance of death or health You don’t know the feelings…

News & Features April 26, 2017

Earth Force: Children’s Books to CHOP

Bettering our communities and improving the quality of our experiences aren’t easy tasks. They take a lot of work, dedication, and willing citizens in order to make progress in society. Our eighth grade community has been given an assignment called, “Earth Force,” which is about working with a cause that you are passionate about. Eighth graders Ha-Eun Choi, Anne Gullace, and Cindy Kim are working on their Earth Force project now. They are donating books to the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania and to GoodWill. I had the fortunate opportunity to be able to talk to Ha-Eun about their project and got some details about the process of collecting the books. Why did you decide on this project? We all like to read books so we wanted to donate some so that others can read them. How have you been going about collecting books? We made an assembly announcement, we have…

News & Features, Poetry April 19, 2017

Calling All Poets! It’s National Poetry Month

Established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month takes place every April and has become one of the largest celebration of literature in the world. In recognition of this month, our newspaper is accepting submissions of poetry. They will all be published collectively in an article that will come the first week of May. If you are interested or know someone who may be interested, please consider submitting some of your work. Please note, we will not publish offensive or inappropriate poetry. The poems can be published anonymously, but only at request of the author. In order to submit, email us at msnews@friendscentral.org. Please include your name, grade, poem(s) and whether or not you would like the poem to be anonymous. This is not a contest and anyone can participate, even Upper Schoolers. Submissions will be limited to April 25th in order to release the article on…

Poetry April 19, 2017

Commonly Written: Four Poems

Poems by Audrey Blinman Photography by Blake Riesenfeld COMMONLY WRITTEN Poetry is so commonly written by the victim. The bystander. The bullied. The pained. And yet I wonder how many were written   by the perpetrator? By the bully? By the torturer? By the heartbreaker? The liar? The deranged?   What if every time I see your name create a glow on the screen and still fail to acknowledge it for fear of having to acknowledge it, every time I complain to my allies about your desperation   I’m still not the one feeling the most pain. But what if I know that and still I do nothing?   What does that make me? How do I write then? Am I a villain? Are my words written by a true criminal? By a bully? A torturer? A heartbreaker, a liar?   Do I lie when I say, “Thank you,” When…

Drama, Opinions April 7, 2017

Thespians On: Character

Tips for Developing a Character So, you got cast in a musical, a movie, or whatever. How are you going to play your character? How do they behave? How do they respond to the other characters, the situations, the sets? What steps do you take to figure this out? Well, you need to figure out their motives. Figure out what makes them tick and how they feel. What are their relationships with the other characters? Think about these tips and you can find your character’s “voice.” (I mean, not their voice literally. That will just be your voice. But their…reasons for the things that they do and how they do them. See, voice is easier.) 1. What is your character’s motive in the story? This is about identifying why your character does what they do, why they say what they say, and how they say it. A line or an…

Drama, Opinions March 15, 2017

Thespians On: Crying on Command

Crying is not generally considered a good thing, unless you’re “happy-crying.” Theatre is one of those weird things that considers drying a talent. Crying on command is a must-have skill for anyone trying to get into professional acting, because a lot of directors will have at least scene in their movie where someone is crying. Now, you could do that fake dry-crying where you make weird breathing sound that make it seem like you’re choking on cat fur, or you could actually learn how to get those salty droplets to roll down your face. If you don’t know how then WAIT! GUESS WHAT I’M ABOUT TO DO! GUESS, COME ON, GUESS! Yes. A LIST. You’re welcome. GET SOMEONE TO BLOW ON YOUR EYES   This won’t exactly get you to Viola Davis’ snot-acting level of tears, but if you have an off day and need a little kick to get…

Drama, Opinions March 8, 2017

Thespians On: Playwriting

Playwriting is a very, very, very, very, very, very long process. I mean, you could bang out a one-hundred page script full of lines like, “Yeah,” and, “Wow,” but that would be torture for the publishers and audiences alike. Some people think playwriting should be done on your own, or they refuse help from anyone else because they think they’re destined to be the new Shakespeare and Shakespeare wouldn’t possibly need help from anyone or anything. But truth is, the more people on the team, the better. I’m not suggesting you have one-hundred playwrights together trying to implement each of their ideas while also working off the others, but a good team of under twenty playwrights will create a strong creative environment. And if you’re lucky, most of them will have written a play before and so know a strong process. But just in case, I’ll let you in on…

Drama, Opinions March 1, 2017

Thespians On: The Best Plays on Broadway

Musicals are enchanting, with their singing and dancing and high-energy flare. They make more money than you can shake a stick at and steal the Broadway spotlight. Unfortunately, they steal this spotlight from the smaller, shorter, and, quite frankly, simpler plays. I think this is a sad occurrence, because there are some really funny, really touching, and really moving plays on Broadway, and I think they deserve to be known. The following are, in my opinion, the best plays on Broadway (and off of it.) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Off-Broadway (Tickets for Shows at the Kimmel Center) Based off the novel by the same name, this tells a touching story of an autistic teenage boy who is trying to find his mother. I strongly recommend this play, however, it does curse once in a while and handles some difficult themes for young children. Present Laughter Broadway…

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Opinions February 22, 2017

Blocked

Social media, messaging and emails have become essential pieces of many people’s lives. These platforms, however, are more menacing and dangerous than some people know. One text message can be taken out of context and twisted, a post can be turned into a threat, a private email can be forwarded. Sometimes, though, a person may not make the right decision by sending an email, text, etc. in the first place, and in the end the issue that follows can actually be traced back to them and not the instigator. This is something extremely relevant to us as middle schoolers, because a large portion of our social lives is controlled through a form of social media (for most of us, at least). I recently heard a great solution to this issue of compulsive posting. A teacher spoke to me today about how she manages things. She said that she writes what…

Opinions February 15, 2017

Quarantined: How to Deal with Toxic Friendships

We have experienced our fair share of friendship problems, as we think many (if not all) people have. We didn’t have a lot of guidance while dealing with these, so we were sort of just left to float there. Like sad little plankton. So, we sought out some help. We learned quite a few things about detecting toxic friendships, fixing issues, and in the end, if there is nothing to be done, how to end a relationship cleanly. We realized that without the tips that we got from our friends, our parents, etc., we never would have figured it out on our own. We’d still be there, stuck in the middle of the ocean, screaming, “Swim away,” whenever we saw a whale. (This metaphor is more about our undying love for Nemo, but it works.) Here are some of the tips we used: Detecting a Toxic Friendship   This can…

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