twelve: the double-helix remix

Here's a shuffle of shots but is there a dime store strand to hold the pearls together? Are there any pearls here? Is there too much redundancy or can you begin to hear a syncopated rhythm?

The story is approaching twelve. And twelve is an identity workshop, a green cast, the photo booth at the mall, tutoring your mom about myspace. I am planning to begin a parallel story on another twelve year old who goes to public school which might generate a narrative structure. These sketches of Madalyn give slightly different insights into the nuances of her character. I could use advice on how to prune or shape what has been collected so far.


Madalyn Grossman equates traditional school with worksheets and tension. At Roots, a self-directed learning environment, she designs her own day. Here Madalyn sings along to a song on her ipod into a hand-held soda bottle microphone in the Roots bio-diesel school bus.




Madalyn and Ella Ferris-Folkerts make an afternoon inspection of her cast that will be cut away in just a few more days. When Madalyn broke her arm her mother asked her if she wanted an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Madalyn said, “I got all serious and I said, ‘no, I can handle it’ and then I started screaming again. I got in the car and my mom drove really really fast to the emergency room.”


Madalyn hangs out with a cat while Eli takes a moment to say farewell on Mitchell on his final day of Roots. In the fall, a few of the boys at Roots constructed a tree fort and Madalyn, Rose, and Ella built a cat house made out of palates and plywood.


Madalyn, and Rose Bake ,left, and Allia Rahman, right, implement a strategy to crush the boys team during a morning of capture the flag


Rose, Madalyn, and Allia face off with Quanah Leija-Elias on the opposing team. The boundary is drawn; it’s girls against boys. Madalyn said, “They don’t let us play on their teams because they don’t think we’re fast enough. They say were slow runners and they don’t play by the rules.”


Tyler Thomas lurches away from the camera during capture the flag. “Kehynan and Tyler did really mean stuff to me and Rose so we have to have counseling meetings,” Madalyn said, “We had one this morning and they didn’t say a word. We sat there for five minutes waiting for an answer from them. They got their ipods out and basically weren’t respecting us as all.”


Madalyn and Ella Ferris-Folkerts work on math problems together. Slingshot jokes and personal news flashes prop up pensive stints of problem-solving while snow falls outside.


Madalyn and Isadora wait for their mother to order them sandwiches after dance class at the 9th Street Deli. Madalyn said her mother, “has a busy schedule so sometimes that catches up on us. We’ve done a lot together - more than my mom and my sister have - because my sister gets a lot more of the attention. Having all those experiences before she was born helps.”


Candy Grossman runs her hand though Madalyn’s hair before they leave for a dance class. “I’m her agent in way,” Madalyn said, “I like to organize her purse and organize her desk and manage her myspace page. She’s kind of clueless when it comes to myspace. She didn’t even know how to edit her profile. She knows how to do a lot of stuff on the computer that I don’t so I guess we’re even.”