Street Stringers Gallery
"In journalism, a stringer is a freelance journalist, photographer, or videographer who contributes reports, photos, or videos to a news organization on an ongoing basis but is paid individually for each piece of published or broadcast work.” (from Wikipedia)
Jump To:
Journalistic Journey #1: Signs of the Times
​
All around us are signs -- for driving, parking, biking, walking and everything in between. Some we get right away, and others make us wonder. There are so many, we sometimes miss the most obvious ones.
Take a picture of a sign that makes you think. Is it informative, visually appealing, or does it have a spelling mistake? Write about why you found it interesting (in poetry, prose, a review…). Submit your piece on TKP website to Street Stringer News for a chance to be featured in our gallery and win a $10 Amazon gift card.
Nova M., NY
THIS IS NOT A CLEANING SIGN! This is a sign containing a ‘P’ for Pepholoids, which is the name of an alien species the government has been hiding from us in Area 51.
​
The Pepholoids have the ability to spread peffles, which are mind-controlling spores. The Know, a secret organization with classified ties to the government, uses peffles to control the minds of civilians. They have made a deal with Pepholoids that in exchange for spreading their peffles, they will get all the foods they like (pea soup, PB&J sandwiches, pretzels, and any food that starts with ‘P,’ since that is their favorite letter). The Pepholoids’ home planet Pepid has run out of resources, which is the reason they came to Earth.
​
Beware! On Mondays and Thursdays, from 11am to 12:30 pm, the Pepholoids spread their peffles. The way they accomplish this is by applying their peffles all over the bottoms of the brooms used by street cleaners. Then, when a person ‘cleans’, they spread the peffles all over the street.
​
The sign is code for people in The Know to put on their Pif masks, which are full-face masks engineered by Area 51’s most talented scientists to block the peffles.
​
Before you protest that you would know if you were being controlled, the peffles are designed to attack the subconscious center of your brain and make you believe that you are doing what you want to do. This is not true. The only way to know if the peffles are still in your brain is to try to stop blinking for a full minute. If you can’t help it and you blink anyway, that means the peffles haven’t worn off yet.
​
To chase off any other questions, peffles only last for about 4 days before wearing off. That’s why peffles are spread every 3 to 4 days.
​
Spreading time is around lunch, because people inhale the most peffles while they eat, especially if they don’t close their mouths while they chew. So remember your manners! There are at least 10,000 fully activated spores per inhale. No spores are ever exhaled because once they touch the inside of your throat, a chemical reaction causes them to shoot upwards to your brain. Then each spore burrows a tunnel so thin into your brain that scientists can barely see it with an electron microscope.
​
If you have paid attention to this warning, you already know what happens next: mind control by peffles, courtesy of The Know.
Eeshaan P., Ohio
Caution Watch Your Step
Watch your step
Don’t slip and fall
Don’t break your bones up on the wall
Run around and don’t fall down
Fly up high to slip and fly
Drop down low to the flow
Watch your step on the water
Don’t run home and start to falter
Be careful down there
Over by the mare
With the slippery sliding
most exasperating floor
So watch that step on the floor
You could fall by the door
With the slippery sliding floor
All to remind you about the door
Also one more thing
I am only here to inform you about the floor
IF you want to see what happens with the slippery sliding floor
Try it yourself
So bye
And you
BYE
.jpg)
Alia A., CA
ATTENTION! This area is under surveillance!
If you are up to causing crime, here is not the place or time.
If you can make things disappear, maybe don’t do it right here?
This area is under surveillance.
You are always being seen, so maybe try not to be mean.
You are watched by a steady eye, so don’t dare steal, don’t even try.
This area is under surveillance.
Always watching, not one blink, you’ll be caught if you don’t think.
Please be careful, read this sign, don’t say that quite threat’ning line.
This area is under surveillance.
Of course, if you are innocent, this sign may not make any sense.
So just remember to be good, behave as you obviously should.
This area is under surveillance.
Whether here or away from this place, always behave with utmost grace.
Be good, not one offensive thought, behave as nice as well you ought.
This area is under surveillance.
Of course this sign could be a lie, but you won’t know unless you try.
So even if this is deceit, how about trying to be discreet?
This area might be under surveillance.
And sometimes people aren’t so kind to even try to put up a sign.
So always act as if observed, give people kindness they deserve.
You could be under surveillance!
Journalistic Journey #2: Sightings:
First You See It, then you write it.
​
-
Take a photo of interest about a place that 1. reminds you about your past, and/or 2. points you toward your future.
-
Write three facts about the photo. Include where and when it was taken. Now, go deeper. Use the facts to
- Write an article in 100 words or less. Include what caught your eye, and why you took this photo.
Nova M., NY
On the Road, Dreaming of a Garden
​
Driving in a rental car
I look at the one-way sign
I see bricks
Yellow paint
And beautiful
Pink, purple and white
Flowers
I think about the move
And how
Our new house
Might have a
Roof garden
I will plant
Roses and shrubs
Orchids and hibiscuses
Spinach, mint, dandelions
Rosemary, garlic and
Onions and thyme
I blink my eyes and
I’m in a tunnel
I watch the white
And blue and yellow
Go flashing by
I think of blue proteas
Yellow buttercups
White roses
Then I’m back
In my garden
Sitting down
Among the plants
​
Mark P., NY
Any photo, blurry or chaotic, often carries meaning and wonder. Blurry
photos might not let you see the normal objects, but how nice the world is
when blurred out! Unpleasant photos explain that not everything is beautiful,
but all is wonderful. Disorderly photos show that one can find calm even in
the harshest storm. Even overexposed photos of a highway at dusk make
one contemplate, maybe about their past or future (like in my case). All
photos have hidden meaning -- the world is full of art right before us. We just
need to slow down and defocus for a moment.
Journalistic Journey #3: The Interview:
​
Interview a person you think will be interesting. For example, talk to a shopkeeper you see all the time, your neighbor who walks her dog in front of your apartment, an author at a book signing. You might begin: “What a cute dog. What’s his name?” Or, “I just love your books. When did you start writing?” Your goal: to create a short profile of that person. It can be one seamless piece or in Q and A format. You decide.​
​
If you interview them in person, make sure you have their permission (and your parents’), and that you are both abiding by current COVID protocol—to be masked, or else on the phone.
Talk so people will listen. Listen so people will talk. Good reporters know how to do good interviews. It’s all in the questions they ask. So start the conversation. You’ll be amazed by the people you meet and the things you learn.
Be prepared. Be polite. Be specific.
No Winners for Journalistic Journey #3
Journalistic Journey #4: Hidden History
​
Take a deep dive, go underground, and explore what might be hidden from view.
-Where does your hidden story take place?
-What are the little known facts?
Can you dig up the secret life of plants, streets, and/or people you pass by every day?
​
Find history’s hidden marvels. People, places and things. Reveal unknown facts like find the story behind the apartment that was turned into a club in Grand Central Station, why is the town of Punxsutawney, PA famous, or why Gatorade was invented. Write an article in 100 words or less about a mystery or little known fact that interests you.
Nova M., NY
"Felled"
​
Elix Inkeles,
Felled in a foreign land,
He lived in King’s County,
He enlisted in war.
Only twenty-three,
He stays with the French.
Despite all that we know
About the first World War,
We have disregarded
Elix Inkeles,
His purple star shining,
Only one phrase preserved
From his last letter home:
‘I am well and contented.’
With his tree dead and gone,
There is no way to know
Whether it was an oak,
A maple, a willow.
All that is left behind
Is a plaque among leaves.
Tahra A., NY
In our living room there is a cut off head of a statue of Buddha. The Chinese government of Mao Zedong was cutting off all the heads of Buddha statues in Tibet in the 1960’s but a monk rode off with one to save it. While crossing the Himalayan mountains, he was starving, and traded it for food with a traveller. Somehow, it ended up in a trailer park in New Jersey, where my mom came across it. The person who owned it gave it to her because she recognized it. She will donate it to a Tibetan museum someday.
Journalistic Journey #5: Who Inspires You​
​
Inspirational figures and moments that inspire you to be strong, face your fears, and get a job done that needs doing, with courage and passion.
Whether they are characters from Greek mythology, books or the comics, first responders or family members, select a figure who inspires you to photograph, draw, and write about.
Tell us what makes them inspiring in your story, in your eyes.
Submit a picture or drawing of who inspires you, along with a 100 words or less story on how they inspire you.
Lucas H., TN
Leonhard Euler
Many who look at this picture see only a man, but I see the many contributions he made to the field of mathematics. I see his contributions to number theory, graph theory, logic, and so much more. I see the prolific contributions he made in these fields stretch mathematics further than anyone before thought possible. It makes one wonder what a revolution of comparable influence would accomplish and what wonders it would create. This inspires me to become the one to make that breakthrough.
Journalistic Journey #6: Issues Require Solutions​
​
Positive change starts with the individual. As Thanksgiving and the holidays draw near, find someone in your community who is making a difference. Interview them. Tell us about the actions they are taking to make the world a better place. TKP invites you to be part of the solution.
Submit your article (100 words or less) about a young leader who is taking up a cause and working on a solution. Include a picture or drawing with caption and credit.
.jpg)
Nova M., NY
Math for Girls
Anjali Kalanidhi, 15, wasn't the fastest at multiplication and didn't always get the highest grades. Then she realized that she wasn't there to be the best—she was there to learn. Today, Anjali hosts a virtual math circle for girls, with participants all over the country. “There are so few women in mathematics and that stems from girls being discouraged,” she says. Anjali remembers hearing that “reading is for girls and math is for boys,” but believes that all kids have amazing potential. “This is why it is important to encourage girls to keep wanting to learn math,” she advises.