Black History Month Art Contest
2023 Winners
Poetry
Winner:
Untitled By Feranmi Olawoye, 9th Grade
When you look at me
You see a black girl, dark-skinned
The very own obsidian black pearl
the brightest in the darkest of nights
A shaft of light so bright you are blinded
By my grace
With a head held high
Eyes looking into a future of greatness
And big lips that speak of power
Your urge to stare i know can not be compressed
Or so I thought
I didn't know i was going backwards
You may crane your neck to get a better view of me
Little did i know you were speaking down on me
Words like rain that were drowning me
The darkness of my skin might scare you
Haunt you even
As i step into the darkness i disappear
Only making it easier
To reappear as
As a goddess
A queen
This crown on my head too heavy
For anyone to even bare
And don’t you dare think you can step in my shoes
For as you say
my feet are too big
The steps I take almost 4 feet apart
You cannot even meet eye to eye with me
You need an elevator just to get next to me
I possess unique qualities
Only one quantity of me
You call me a horse
And I am just starting to realize you were right
A stallion is what I am
A snake is what you are
Fangs filled with poison
Injecting those who don’t know better
Than to follow your ways
You make them one of your own
Your little minions
They are all copy and paste
Of the same thing
Fakeness
My complexion is something
I am no longer ashamed of
And I never will be again
Nothing is better than my complexion
A shade of a beautiful ripe coconut
brown
I am impossible to be broken
And naturally at the end of my course I
Will rise into a forest of coconut trees
Coming together as one
I stand strong with my spine in
A straight line
In a chair my back aligned
Getting my education
Impacting myself, my future and generations to come for the better
Working my behind off
Because I know it will benefit me later in life
God replied telling me
It will all be okay in the end
Life plays out in unexpected ways.
Karma will bite harder than you think
I know now I don't need anyone
To tell me what is the definition of what beauty is
Because you are standing right in front of
HER
Winner:
Black Joy By Da’Shemé Hosley, 9th Grade
Black joy
Nothing truly conquers Black joy
Black joy overcomes all obstacles
Metamorphosing into art
Art born from suffering
Born from oppression
Born from Black pain
Black joy will prevail
regardless of circumstance
A perfectly crafted sculpture through wreckage and debris
‘A rose through concrete’
You hold it back
Pressing your knees on its airways
But Black joy finds another way to breathe
Breathe through our hair
Breathe through our music
Breathe through our melanin
Expression from oppression
You block us from your music
We make our own and fill it with soul
You ban us from your clubs
We congregate in mass and have a ball of our own
You take us from our motherland
The setting of which breathes and bleeds
African art
Still
We take your title
Your unspoken challenge
Your standard ‘American’
Take it. Accept it.
It doesn’t go down easy,
but we endure it
A sedative we swallow
But in reality, a placebo
African American, Black
An established title
counteracting ‘American’
A tweak, or fix reminding us
we will never truly
be of your standard
Black joy gets the better of your standard
Your standard of beauty opposes our braids
Your standard of fashion opposes our prints
Your standards of ‘American’ contrasting our skin
Your standard is not Black
And Black joy bleeds
Black joy bleeds through its heart
Leaking soul, art, and culture
despite it all
Black joy is a force sought by many
to be reckoned with
But stands above all that oppose it
A ruler among weaker kingdoms
Wishing on its expiration
A powerful tribe
Countless wars in its history
But never taken down
Never conquered
Black joy,
Cannot be stopped
Cannot be conquered
Nothing truly conquers Black joy
