By AB Marcus

Yes. It was the beginning of a new era in the city.

Three fresh Providence college graduates stood looking at empty store fronts in downtown Providence RI.

As if frozen in time, it seemed like everything stopped, the three young women stood like statues in awe of the designs, the creativity and innovation they knew they could create here.

Rachel, Sara, and Julie had a passion for store front beauty. 

These three women wanted to create something that would bring life back to the streets of downtown Providence, Rhode Island. 

"Let's get back to the office to plan and brainstorm," Sara said. "We need to focus on creating visual designs that featured the famous tourist attractions in Rhode Island," she said on the way back to their walk up Westminster Street office.

"You know," Julie said, "because of Amazon and online shopping these storefront will be empty for years."

"We definitely have to come up with something that will be Creative & Innovative!" Rachel remarked.

Once they got back to their new design office, the three designers started by researching the latest trends in store front design, visiting other stores in the area, and talking to local business owners. They also attended workshops and seminars to learn more about the industry. After gathering all the information they needed, they began to sketch out their ideas and create a plan for their vacant storefront visual designs.

Then the three designers worked together to create a modern, inviting, and unique store front designs for empty store fronts. 

They used bright colors, interesting shapes, and unique materials to create a space that was inviting and 

eye-catching. They also incorporated elements of their own personal style into the design.

They all knew it was the beginning of a new era in the City since the Providence Design District had been established and Rachel, Sara, and Julie knew they were graphic designers were at the forefront of this new movement.

You see these three women were friends since at RISD and Brown and they decided to combine their expertise and create a web design and graphic design studio in downtown Providence.

The End

By AB Marcus

Once upon, a very recent time, on a day in May...

...there was a writer’s strike.

Great and small union writers, from far and wide who publish, type and scribble creative ideas and images - were halted.

Incredibly, something charmed and unexpected soon occurred.

The nine excellent muses, in a wink, appeared and placed their sights on the minds of non union writers.

The muses "spoke" to these writers in the form of spectacular ideas and plots, which even the most seasoned screenwriters could not have imagined on their own. They did this because the muses finally felt free, to explore new ideas their union writers would never dare to brainstorm into being.

As you might realize, the stories created by these inspired writers were of a breathtaking original quality - not like anything seen before, and far beyond the limitations of human creativity.

The news spread, as news does, like wildfire.

It became clear that in the recent past, the writer’s guild was a place where the most sought-after ideas were being peddled to the highest bidders - with the nine muses imprisoned only by some sense of duty to their largest audiences.

Suddenly, the muses realized that they could work with all writers union and non-union and their freedom during the writer's strike opened new avenues of creation.

"See!" said Calliope, the oldest and wisest with the tallest hair of the nine Muses, "That's why the strike happened in the first place!" she said.

So they decided there would no longer be any boundaries in terms of creativity in the industry for the muses after, this strike ever again.

This incredible new generation of writers even formed a free collective, enabled by the mysterious muses. A place where creativity flourishes, never hindered by the constraints of previous dues and rules. Today writers' ideas are born in abundance, and all writers quickly find success and admiration.

The writer’s strike eventually ends, but the legacy of the muses still lasts to this day with a new found sense of abundance, creativity and innovation, to fuel the imagination of ALL writers for years to come with brand new ideas and images.

The End

That office is an architectural anomaly - three stories tall and 13 feet deep. It's Providence's own rectangular version of the New York City flat iron building. It's interesting that the Arnold family and their clever building were founding settlers of the Colony of Rhode Island.

A very curious box, found in a very strange building. owned by a Providence family, who were the first 13 settlers of Providence. Yes, the building is exactly 13 feet wide, one foot for every original Providence settler! Just a fascinating fact or is it something even more...

You see, until today, for more than three years, Bryana and Sam's graphic design business in downtown Providence Rhode Island wasn't really making it.

Today, however, to their complete surprise, "The Excellent Wonder Box" became an instant hit and they were blessed with a degree of success they had never experienced before at their peculiar design office. The curiosity in this relic with Rhode Island's founding date took the public by storm.

But soon, the amount of attention they get from customers and the media from TV news spots, podcasts and Providence Journal newspaper articles became overwhelming - how to explain their success and how to explain to the public the real secrets of this Excellent Wonder Box. They both became very anxious and confused about their recent celebrity.

Neither did they know that their "Excellent Wonder Box" has a will of its own.

This odd box, this relic from 1636 Providence, immediately, instantaneously and incredibly manipulates design and innovation in time and space around it. It transports Bryana and Sam, in a wink, to London, Paris, and then Beijing - each time for exactly 12 minutes and :35 seconds then hurtling the two to a new time and place. 

With each new visit they see the innovative designs, shapes and colors and textures from every time and place they land. And as fast as they record an original concept, off to the next place and design and creative innovation.

Aware of the danger they could now face, they try to find some way to avoid getting lost in time and space. Sam works out the coordinates and calculates a formula to bring them back to the present.

However, Bryana realizes they must always stay close to the "Excellent Wonder Box" within its energy field in order to return to each time and place they've encountered.

This "Excellent Wonder Box" with it's strange new power... will they learn to master the art and design of time-travel and make the most out of this new-found ability? Or will they get lost in quantum dimensions?

After countless close calls and narrow escapes, Bryana and Sam eventually land at the Slater Mill in Pawtucket Rhode Island on May 25th 1824. This is on the eve of the first factory strike EVER in the United States - led by one hundred and two, young women, mill workers.

With no way out and tension building for the early morning strike, Bryana and Sam attempt to hide the box in the deepest corner of the Slater Mill. Three time-cops who became aware of their dimensional warping were already there waiting for them ready to stop their timeline entangling.

However, just as three time-cops are about to take the Excellent Wonder Box away, a strange golden violet light radiates. Suddenly, it's the next day May 26th - outside the Slater Mill - crowded with striking mill workers protesting at the gate - dressed in 19th Century clothes - all the weaving machines silent. but the crowd at full throttle, with chants and loud noises. Rocks thrown. Shattered glass!

Just then, a woven tarp lying against the mill wall comes to life, and the 'Excellent Wonder Box' appears out of thin air.

The time-cops, in a fit of rage, try to take the Excellent Wonder Box by force, but are engulfed in a sparkling fog.

The golden violet light fades away.

When the dust settles, the time-cops are gone and the 'Excellent Wonder Box' returns to Bryana and Sam's hands back in the present.

The Slater Mill becomes eerily quiet again as Bryana and Sam watched their Fantastic Wonder Box stunned with Amazement at what they had seen and heard and. now, know.

Before them was presented an opportunity neither of them could have imagined to tell this story of the first ever triumph of women working together to make a better design, and a better life. 

Just then a robotic, woman's voice, rang out from the box: “The power of the 'Excellent Wonder Box' is yours. Use it wisely. "Good design is Everything!" she exclaimed.

So, Bryana and Sam took the 'Excellent Wonder Box' with them and their design business enjoyed a whole different kind of Success in Providence, overcoming challenges with ease and finding joy in every creative design adventure life took them on.

They'll always remember that morning at the Slater Mill, how women turned the tide of the world. One hundred and ninety nine years ago - one hundred and two Rhode Island Women, Changed the World Forever. for Good!

Better design always leads to a better world, and Bryana and Sam realize it.

Whether it was luck, fate, or something else, they were grateful. Yes. The Excellent Wonder Box is always packed for another adventure with Splendorous Exacting Excellent Wonder ... and that..."Good Design Is, indeed, EVERYTHING!"

The End.

GIRL POWER IN 1824: 

THE FIRST FACTORY STRIKE IN AMERICA

For More True History of 1824 Slater Mill, Pawtucket, RI - Click Here!