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Write a story about activism.

Posted in Nonfiction on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 45 stories

Full Price

Winner of Contest #45 🏆

Our boss got arrested last night. We were surprised to hear this, because Ms. Chang is such a suit. Grumpy even after her morning coffee—fetched by whoever is unluckily in her radius when she asks—Chang is the kind of boss who keeps her job for her capital and not her charisma. She’s always on the straight-and-narrow, so much so that she makes us use a script to sell the Steinways. This begs the question…what could Chang have possibly done to land herself in jail? And also, is her bail money coming out of our paychecks? A group of us show up...

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Legacies

Winner of Contest #45 🏆

The demolition is scheduled on a Thursday, during finals, at the exact same time that the only ice cream shop in town is offering free cones. This is deliberate, of course; they’re hoping to get it over and done with quietly, without any fanfare.But we will not let them take today away from us.I help my best friend get ready in his room an hour before it is scheduled to happen. He tries to convince me it is not too hot for a suit, and I remind him that if he faints, he’ll make a scene, and not the kind he wants. He makes me turn around while...

136 likes 52 comments 52
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Story: Not Done!

Submitted to Contest #45

They say(Who says?)That actions speak Louder than words;That one picture is worthA THOUSAND Of those wordsThat value less Than our actions do.Every time we penA poemEveryone who writes A songA person who scribbles A story And the chorus thatShouts along.Our words are nothing If we do notSAY themOur actions fall flatIf we do not SLAY them. March to the beat of A tired crowd’s drumHelp raise awareness For a new age to come.Push back when the People tell you to be silentPush back with ...

51 likes 33 comments 33
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Lost

Submitted to Contest #45

First I drifted off to sleep. Then I woke up. I heard gunshots. I smelled smoke. I sensed danger. I knew I had to get out. That is what happened when my dad set fire to my apartment building and killed all of its occupants. Except for my mom, my brother, and me. But not because he loved us. If he loved us he wouldn’t have burned down our building in the first place, ruining all of our belongings. Ruining us. Love means nothing if the person you love doesn’t love you. Everyone in our apartment building loved my dad, but he despised the...

43 likes 13 comments 13
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Going Against the Grain

Submitted to Contest #45

“You again? My answer is still no.” Zander Lawson already knew what the man in the slick, sharp, dark suit that just walked into his grocery store was going to ask. It would be the same question he had asked last week and the week before that. Are you sure you don’t want to sell the shop? We can negotiate a real nice deal for you… No, he did not want to sell his mini family-owned grocery store, which had become a staple of the neighborhood for over fifteen years. Why should he leave? The multicultural community was home where kids still...

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Busy Liz

Submitted to Contest #45

Amalia Rivers was sitting at her desk at the Pejepscot Historical Association of Maine in Brunswick. The afternoon light was fading, and she was rushing to finish some of the cataloguing of the two new quilts the organization had received. One had come from Harpswell and had been the gift of women in the small town in the Maine coastal town to their pastor, Reverend Hallowell. It was a simple log cabin design, but the stitching was very adeptly done and there was a date in one corner: 1889. There was an exhibit planned in two months. The PHA...

22 likes 4 comments 4
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BETTERING

Submitted to Contest #45

Okay, so it’s not up there with Romeo and Juliet, or Leave or Remain, but this business about the bypass has started to divide our village in a way I haven’t seen before. Oh, there were the tiffs and the factions and the folk who rubbed each other up the wrong way, that’s how it is in any village, no matter what anyone said. But we muddled along. We generally ended up having a laugh and a drink together, or at any rate, agreeing to differ. It was the kind of village where we might all have our “pet activists” and favoured...

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The Taste of Freedom

Submitted to Contest #45

The moon was getting weary as it hung tiredly, it's light tangling around the branches of the peach trees. The peaches themselves were hung with shadows wrapped around their warm orange. Bright white fingers swept the valley in rays of sunlight as the music danced around the giant sized mansion. The Perry House's windows were swept with a mixture of sun and moon. Plump pink lanterns strung along with the bush which served as a fence to protect the yard. Overflowing tables of butter bread and spiced tomatoes, brisket and fat potatoes, cheesy ...

15 likes 1 comment 1
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Anates Ex Machina

Submitted to Contest #45

Forget the Zapruder film that registered the shooting of President John F. Kennedy. Forget the footage of the Boeing 767s that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Those iconic images pale in comparison to the recordings of the Arrival.Everyone remembers where he was and what he was doing when the first news bulletins of the appearance of the UFOs were aired. The gigantic flying saucers showed up simultaneously in the sky at twelve different locations: Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires, Brasilia, London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beij...

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My last beatng

Submitted to Contest #45

CHAPTER 1: THE PEFSONAL IS POLITICAL             My father’s favorite instrument of punishment: six feet of rubber hose. He doubled it in his hand and brought it down hard. It gave off a “swoosh” before branding my flesh with U-shaped bruises.        One summer day at our church Vacation Bible School when I was twelve I lifted my shirt to show a friend the welts I had received the night before. Miss Davis, a teacher, saw the blu...

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THE LAST LETTER

Submitted to Contest #45

THE LAST LETTERThe most ephemeral feeling a person can experience in the world is that of hope. As a millennial who loved phrases like ‘changing times’ or ‘the progressive new world’, I was so lost in the excitement of new found liberty that I forgot that there was a time when all this was a dream. I was living in a time of pride parades and women marches across capital city markets, of open online confessions and Supreme Court libertarian judgements. Lost in the beauty amidst the rubble of ancient social pillars, I had forgotten that we wer...

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Paint Loudly

Submitted to Contest #45

Ditching school was a pleasure. Slipping the itchy navy blazer and tight green tie off in the alleyway beside Phoenix Prep School was like a cool breeze on a hot summer’s day in Times Square. Alex was already in the alleyway, waiting with one leg propped up against the wall and a Marlboro between her stained fingers. She wore her usual get up, her favourite maroon Doc Marten boots and the Ramones T-shirt she stole from a street seller. Her dark frizzy hair was loose around her face like a halo and her cocoa skin was makeup-free. She was the ...

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Bushington’s Dog Park

Submitted to Contest #45

    The stench’s still gone.   Hallelujah!  But, this week, our family’s having other problems.  See, my family used to take me once a week (well, me and a family member) to the dog park.   Now, in a dog park, smells are everywhere.  Smells of other dogs, smells of trees, humans, squirrels, raccoons, deer, insects, and other animals.  But, someone called, the Mayor, is shutting the dog park down because, “Texas (or taxes) should be spent in better ways....

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Malaya's Legacy

Submitted to Contest #45

“THEY KILLED MALAYA!” Pangarap and Sikap rise from their chairs as soon as Buhay gave the news. Pangarap and Sikap look at each other, their brows furrowed and their foreheads showing creased and worried lines. “What happened?” Buhay continues to breathe heavily as she tries to recover and gasp her breath.  “I was going to the library since Malaya and I still have to discuss how we can junk the Terror Bill. It was outside the Library when I saw the clowns coming in with their trucks and vans.” “Did they see you there?” Pangara...

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Acts of Faith

Submitted to Contest #45

Peony Balefire peeked through the blinds, her long, thin fingers separating the reeds. She saw the woman pull into the driveway, skidding the tires of what looked like a new Chevy. A stout, high-heeled leg popped out of the open door, and the rest of the woman followed. Peony groaned.There was a quick rap on the office door. "Here comes trouble," the blonde Cypress said.Peony turned away from the window, and sighed heavily. "I hate this, Cypress." The assistant nodded. Peony removed her thin-framed glasses and stuck them in her gaping shirt ...

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