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All the Friends You Can Make From a Smile

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If Twyla met Fatima...  The tension reaching across the small coffee shop table was buzzing like a live electric fence waiting to electrocute someone. After Twyla had started attending Fatima’s yoga classes, Biniam noticed the competitiveness between the two women and suggested they get to know each other better before one of them got hurt trying to out-yoga the other. “so, Biniam said you’ve been doing his yoga classes for a while, you seem pretty practiced.” Fatima barely looked up from stirring her coffee to reply, “It’s therapeutic, makes me more aware of my body”. Twyla’s “yeah. I get that.” plunged them into silence once again. Both women turned to see two young girls walk by on the sidewalk outside the window of the coffee shop. The girls glared at each other as their mother scolded them. As Twyla turned back to face Fatima, she realized how stupid their reluctance to make friends was. She took a deep breath, preparing to say something about their p
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"Thomas Builds-the-Fire Closed His Eyes and Told This Story..."

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Alternative title for “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” “Thomas Builds-the-Fire closed his eyes and told this story…” When we first read this story, I really liked the title that Sherman Alexie gave it and thought it fit well with the style of the story. The original title doesn’t sound like a traditional short story title, but I think it fits the story that also isn’t very traditional and feels a bit off balance. While the original title did a good job of conveying the general mood of the story, it didn’t in my opinion have a whole lot to do with the content of the story. While the majority of the story relates in some way to the two boys’ trip to Phoenix, that doesn’t seem like the main idea of the story, and I think a title that is pulled directly out of the text and summarizes a big part of the relationship between the two boys would be good for this story. I think the story needs a title that keeps up with this theme throughout the whole story o
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The Struggle of Siblings: A Dramatic Interpretation

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Staging of a scene from “The Evolution of My Brother” I think it would be interesting to recreate and watch the scene in “The Evolution of My Brother” where Jenny gets frustrated with her brother and forces him to leave her room (pg.158-160). I think this scene is very interesting and adds to the description of the complicated relationship between an older and younger sibling that this story is building. In this scene after Jenny releases her anger at her brother, she immediately regrets it and hates herself for being so mean to him. I think it is really important to try and capture the swing of emotions that Jenny goes through in this scene.             If I were to arrange a stage to put this scene on, I would want the view of Jenny’s bedroom to be facing the audience, because that is where the story’s point of view is from. The wall with the door to Jenny’s room would be across the room from the audience, but at an angle, so
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