Black History Month Art Contest

Black History Month is about celebrating the culture and accomplishments of the Black community. An amazing way people portray this culture is through art. This year, an event is being organized by our vice-principal, Ms. Neblett! The many talented students at J. Clarke Richardson will create artworks such as paintings, musical pieces, or even written art for Black History Month. 

There are three different categories to allow students to be creative in many different ways. Visual arts, like paintings or photography. Performing arts, for people who sing and dance. Finally, there’s a literary component for students who enjoy writing a poem, a short story or even a song or rap. The contest is open to everything as long as it does not portray something offensive!

Ms. Neblett believes this event will allow students to express themselves creatively: “art is something the Black community embraces. It allows people to feel something they can’t express in words. I want the art pieces to represent the positive side of the community, like a celebration of the culture.” Dozens of talented students started working on art pieces right away. After a month of creative and fun art contest submissions, it’s finally time to get to the winners. With dozens of motivated students and amazing submissions, Settling on a handful of winners was admittedly hard. Nonetheless, the winners have been selected.

To start it off we have Laylah Winans, who made a beautiful pencil sketch of Malcolm X, an African American minister and human rights activist. He was a spokesperson for the Nation of Islam and played an important role in the concepts of race pride and Black nationalism.

Jasvini Jasinthan made an inspirational infographic on Amanda Gorman, a fantastic poet whose work focuses on race, oppression, feminism, as well as the African diaspora. She was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate.

To wrap up we have an amazing drawing of Martin Luther King Jr, by Nyla Ford. King was an American minister, activist, and the most visible leader during the civil rights movement.

Of course, we have to give a huge shout-out to all the runner-ups and participants. Wasna Bhutta and Rosie Al Majidi created wonderful biographies and drawings about important people in the Black community. These artworks have portrayed the priceless accomplishments of numerous influential people and have celebrated the culture and traditions of the Black community. We are planning to have a similar contest for Black History Month next year. Stay tuned until next time!

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