Torrance Festival of Ideas
Creative Submissions

People of all ages and backgrounds were encouraged to participate in a creative challenge exploring the theme, “Reflections on 2020.” Participants submitted their creative contributions in the following areas. See their contributions and learn more about them below.

LITERARY CREATIVITY
Poem, short story or play/monologue

MUSICAL CREATIVITY
Song, dance or video

VISUAL CREATIVITY
Painting/drawing, sculpture or photograph

Under 12

A child's wild, energetic brushmarks in vivid magenta, poppy orange, forest green and azure are framed by a handpainted black rectangle

Revathy Asha – "Mahi's Colours"

A child's mixed media drawing of a woman with black hair, red lips, and a blue shirt. Her right hand is in front of her chest with her index finger raised. The background is a faint blue watercolor.

Sachi Abraham – untitled

A child's watercolor painting of a mountain lake scene. The sky and water reflect the same watery shade of light blue, while a lone figure in a canoe is silhouetted in the middle of the lake. A green mountain range of four peaks, descending in size from left to right anchor the background. Two flocks of birds soar overhead. Undulating green coasts, dotted with black trees, flank either side of the foreground.

Abraham Simon – untitled

Ages 12-17

Lines of red, yellow, green, bronze, and brown makeup criss-cross a teenage girl's face. The marks depict line graphs of Covid-19 cases in Spain, the United States of America, Georgia's Athens-Clarke County, Uruguay, Italy, and China.

Emma Scott – “True Colors: Using Makeup as Activism and Wearing Our Thoughts on Our Faces”

Artist’s Statement
“True Colors: Using Makeup as Activism and
Wearing Our Thoughts on Our Faces”

I painted the graphs of new COVID-19 cases in Spain, the USA, Athens-Clarke County, Uruguay, Italy, and China, onto my face. Each line graph begins in February, 2020 and goes up to July 17, 2020. I was surprised to see that Uruguay and Athens have about the same number of cases (1,000 - 1,100.) I was not able to fit the entire graphs of Spain or the USA because Spain goes up to about 300,000 cases and the US gets up to about 70,000. I included Italy and China, which show that their governments have been able to control the spread of the virus and, while there was a big spike in cases in these countries, there are now almost no cases in either country. I have been doing everything I can to stop the spread of the virus, but many of my peers are unable to accept that this is not a normal time. As cases keep climbing in my hometown, home country, and the country I live in, my disappointment grows. There are more cases everyday and it is not about politics or the economy or freedom. It is about acceptance, safety, and action. The virus is not trying to hurt us and will not hear you if you call it stupid. You may not be at risk, but this is about us, not you. – Emma Scott

Literary Submission

THESE ARE THE TRUTHS THEY TELL YOU WHEN YOU SLEEP:

They always tell you (life’s a journey)
But they never tell you how hard it’s going to be.

There’s a (blanket of indifference) around our eyes
Telling us (life’s a dream)

They whisper in our ears, day and night
Rain or shine

They tell us (love is fine wine)
And invite us to take a sip

But when we sip they take away
Our (peace of mind)

We’re all (boiling mad)
With (broken hearts) and (cold feet)

Drifting away to the unspoken lies of (sweet dreams)

– Emery C

Ages 25-44

Literary Submission

Longing

I have known the unfortunate loneliness of my new office key,
alone on a silver chain, like a widow living in detachment,
jealous of shoes that stay in pairs, blaming N-95s on the coffee
console below the coral chandelier, she witnesses the wordy wrangles
on ABC News, without a clue when she would woo her wise lock,
lock her lips like a magnet to the fridge, but like an ant who climbs after
every tumble, she fights for love with everything around,
be it the nasty smell of sanitizer or bleach on window tops, that slowly makes her rust.
And I have seen her eyes peeking outside, anticipating messages via pigeon,
despite knowing that her deed makes the key holder crimp, and her weight is a long burden,
she wails to be picked up once like older parents living in care homes,
waiting for their kith and kin to come and play easy board games.

– Saurabh Anand

Musical Submission

Sebastian Granados – Art Gallery Set

Literary Submission

Mandated Reporter During a Pandemic

Believe it.
Immediately contact your supervisor. Now.
Even at 10:40 p.m.
Call. Don’t email.
Call ’til she picks up.

Do not ask for photos.
No clarification.
No evidence of any kind.
Believe it.

Delete nothing from your phone.
In fact, don’t use your phone,
it is now evidence in a complex case.
The State will send someone
to your home.
Leave Lysol wipes
and hand sanitizer
on the front stoop
next to the cell phone.
You can watch through the window as they put on gloves,
bag it up
and take it away.

When the police arrive
at the duplex
and the mom
and aunt
and cousins
and uncle
and the guy who lives in the basement
turn on each other,
trying to figure out who called
the cops,
and every last one of them calls you,
don’t say anything.

When you go,
because you have to check on the other kids,
even unvaccinated,
even when the DFACS social worker
is crying, when the nurse
from forensics explains hair growth pattern proves a history (as much
history as a five year old can have),
be glad you are double
masked, six feet away.

– Elizabeth Dubberly
Draft #8: Witness

Ages 45-54

Literary Submission

Boxed In – Reflections on 2020

Movement
Has been stilled.
A restless stillness
That is boxed in neatly,
Zoom in zoom out
Day in day out
Work consuming life
In pandemic academia
Movement across spaces
Campuses, cafes, libraries
Minimized
Masked
Distanced
So that movement
Disappears and reappears
Across screens instead of spaces.
Space is newly defined in zoom
Zooming in zooming out
To spaces Across the world –
Conferences, classes, committees
All in a day’s work
Because now the day
Has been successfully captured
In neat little boxes
The idiot box
Replaced by a smart box
That successfully confines us to our seats.
Seated we work
Across virtual campuses
And online libraries;
Sated with work
We escape into the same box
Watch endless loops of reruns
To take a break.
Break is no longer
Laughter with friends
A walk to the gym
Standing in line
During lunch hour to grab a wrap.
Break is now movement stilled
Stilted packed boxed in.
Zoom in and zoom in further
All you’ll find
Is zoom within zoom.
Boxes stacked in the smart box
A screen defying distance
A smile here
A name there
An alphabet
A black screen
A black box
Like that which remains
When everything that matters
Has crashed burnt
Turned to cinder.
And you turn to the black box
To tell you the tale
Of what was.
Movement stilled.
A pandemic academic
Turning to the blackbox
Endlessly
As the world crashes
Tumbles
Spins out of control.

– Marina Basu

Ages 55-64

At first glance the painting appears to be dozens of colorful, cheetah-esque spots and shapes on a purple and mauve background. Looking closer the shapes reveal themselves to be humanlike, if staring from a great height directly down onto a crowd of vibrant humans.

Jeanne Golightly– “We Stand”

Detail from "We Stand"

Artist’s Statement
"Hope Series"

My work explores the role of hope in the human condition and considers, with interest and wonder, those who move along uncertain paths, toward unknowable futures. I use my brush to draw attention to social issues, examining topics like racism, borders, refugees, migration, and displacement. I am especially interested in reflecting the hope that exists, however fragile, among individuals, families, and communities with limited opportunities. Marginalized people, the faceless, those without a voice. I look at the places where hope coexists with hopelessness, welcome but seemingly out of place. In such circumstances the connections to hope may appear tenuous. But they are there and plainly visible to those who look. – Jeanne Golightly

Literary Submission

Virtual Reality, The Year Of Uncertainty

Twenty Twenty Cricket – watching Chris Gayle blazing away at the wicket,
Twenty Twenty Vision – perfect sight bringing clarity instead of confusion.
Twenty Twenty the year - with the entire world dealing with the COVID scare,
Twenty Twenty will forever be – the year everything changed for you and me.
The year of the Corona virus, the COVID 19 pandemic that has come to kill us!
Don’t help to spread the virus; don’t touch your face - wash your hands first!
Don’t hug, not even your lover! Practice social distance from him or her,
If you can’t get bread, you’d better learn to eat crackers and sardines instead.
For God’s sake don’t cough or sneeze, they will think you have corona disease,
Everybody is acting so paranoid, you really are safer if you stay home, stay inside!

2

Don’t send your child to school – though Sparrow say they’ll become a bloody fool.
Don’t put your fishing boat in the water – for every Anguillian is a born smuggler,
Keep out the virus and the illegal invader, we must protect our entire border!
If only we could also keep out the hater, the ignorant, the small minded and the liar,
And restore the spirit of community, jollification – the things that make us Anguillian!
But no, Twenty Twenty election! My God, look politicians with their lies and confusion!
In typical Anguillian style so much expert opinion, empty vessels making the most sound.
Fake news and conspiracy theories abound, idle hands and mouths are all around.
Twenty Twenty, the churches closed down, people screaming out apostasy, abomination!
Though they haven’t been there worshipping, since their confirmation or child’s christening!

3

Twenty Twenty: curfews, shutdown, quarantine; lives, virtual parties are now the scene,
Virtual church, virtual loving, virtual meetings, real-time family reunions and elbow greetings.
Unfortunately, robbed of the real occasion, some have to settle for a virtual graduation.
Some missing the dominos and the drinking, some carrying on extra-creative gossiping.
Others are dying to go on vacation again, wondering if they will ever board another plane
Some can’t imagine, absolutely refuse – to believe they can’t take that long-planned cruise!
Some spinning like a crazy hen, because they cannot visit their other house in St. Maarten
Or go there to shop or for gambling; or just to bring back some Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Twenty Twenty, the year of the spoiled plans, anxiety, … sorrow … and all the restrictions,
Still, .. it has brought innovation! Twenty Twenty vision, reflection, revision, and restoration!

4

Through the Corona closedown, no tourists are coming, so our economy is really suffering,
In Twenty Twenty, some are really juggling, without their job they truly are struggling.
Its not to say that Twenty Twenty is all bad; it has reminded us of the good that we had
Enforced family time, leisure time, quiet time; reflection time, sometimes too much time!
Showed who around us are really essential, without whom we couldn’t survive at all,
Showed … what we can do without, showed us what is really important without a doubt.
Twenty Twenty showed us no man is an island, each of us is only as safe as the other man,
Showed us that Anguilla is ever so blessed, we will get past this, no need to be stressed!
So… is virtual school and work from home the new norm? Is this Twenty Twenty’s last storm?
…. My God, the hurricane season is upon us! Oh Lord in Thee, in Thee do we put our trust!

– Timothy A. Hodge

From the poet: The inspiration to write the poem was to take a light-hearted approach to the uncertainty that had been created by the COVID-19 pandemic and other circumstances during 2020. The poem was an entry in the Malliouhana Poetry Competition for 2020 in the Spoken Word category, and won first place in the Adult Category. (Malliouhana is the Amerindian name for Anguilla, British Caribbean). For more information, contact the poet at timhodge71@gmail.com