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April 28, 2010
2010 Winners of Annual Poetry Contest Honored
Twenty-one students won recognition for their original poetry in the Third Annual Spirit of the Renaissance Poetry competition held on April 24 at the Lawnside Public School. The theme was "I Know My Soul" taken from the poem by Claude McKay.
The winners read their poems as part of the Seventh Annual Jessie Redmon Fauset Day before a crowd of more than 100. The program featured a keynote address by Dr. Clement A. Price, director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University, Newark, performance poetry by Napalm and jazz by Nasir Dickerson and the Renaissance Messengers. Dr. Cord Whitaker of the University of New Hampshire was the master of ceremonies.
More than 96 poems received from students in Camden and Gloucester counties were reviewed and scored by Napalm and Sandra Turner-Barnes, executive director of the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission. Nine first through third place winners were selected for fifth through seventh grades, eighth through 10th grades, and 11 through 12th grades. Twelve honorable mentions were awarded in the three divisions.
The winning poets are listed below.
Fifth through seventh grades
First place: Destiny McDowell, "I Know My Soul," fifth grade, FX McGraw School, Camden
Second place: Sierra Scott, "I laugh at my soul," sixth grade, Lanning Square School, Camden
Third place: John Connelly, III, "I Know My Soul, fifth grade, FX McGraw School, Camden
Honorable mention recipients were:
KiAyko Walls, "My Soul," fifth grade, John G. Whittier School, Camden
Ha'Nasia Clayton, "I Know My Soul," fifth grade, John G. Whittier School, Camden
Ryahana Brown, "Untitled," fifth grade, FX McGraw School, Camden
Eighth through 10th grades
First place: Michael Rosario Lugo, "SOULdier at War," 10th grade, Highland Regional High School, Blackwood
Second place: Tom Mertz, "The Value of SOUL," 10th grade, Triton Regional High School, Runnemede
Third place: Shawn Kelly, "I Know My Soul," ninth grade, Triton Regional High School, Runnemede
Honorable mention recipients were:
Tyler McLaughlin, "Knowing My Soul," ninth grade, Triton Regional High School, Runnemede
Melissa Jenkins, "I Know My Soul," eighth grade, Bonsall Family School, Camden
11th through twelfth grades
First place: Maureen Busund, "I Know My Soul," 12th grade, Williamstown High School
Second place: Shermaine Carter, "Can You See Me?"11th grade, Highland Regional High School, Blackwood
Third place: Tyler Stosny, "True Soul," Triton Regional High School, Runnemede
Honorable mention recipients were:
Olivia Davis, "The Echoes of My Soul," 11th grade, Delsea Regional High School, Franklinville
Alizabeth Olszewski, "Chains of Irony," 12th grade, Triton Regional High School, Runnemede
Jordan West, "My Soul and Me," 12th grade, Williamstown High School
Dashona Jeter, "Seeking Unconditional Love," 12th grade, Williamstown High School
S. Marie Kleinert, "Natured Soul," 11th grade, Williamstown High School
Alyssa Burns, "My Soul," 11th grade, Williamstown High School
Sandilee Ramos, "Street Soul," 12th grade, Leap Academy University Charter School, Camden
The poems will be published by the Society later this year in an anthology with 2008 and 2009 prize-winning works.
Jessie Redmon Fauset was a Harlem Renaissance novelist, poet and literary editor for the NAACP's Crisis magazine. She was a protégé of the legendary editor, activist and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois. Miss Fauset was born in Lawnside in 1885 when her father was pastor of Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church. The family moved to Philadelphia when she was a young girl. She graduated from Girls' High School in the city, Cornell University and the Sorbonne in Paris. The Historical Society began honoring Miss Fauset in 2004.
Jessie Redmon Fauset Day program and the Spirit of the Renaissance Poetry competition are funded, in part, by a grant from the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Lawnside Historical Society is a non-profit, tax exempt organization dedicated to the preservation of the Peter Mott House and the promotion of Lawnside's heritage as a uniquely African-American town. It is a designated organization of the New Jersey Cultural Trust.
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