Art and Poetry Contest
This year, GPC’s Center for Civic Engagement and Service Learning invited 22 public, private and charter schools throughout metro Atlanta, plus students from Georgia Perimeter College to participate in the inaugural Georgia Perimeter College Art and Poetry Contest. Participants were asked to create artwork and write poems based on the literary work of Rita Dove.
Award categories included the following:
Elementary – Kindergarten through second grade
Elementary – Third through fifth grade
Middle School – Sixth through eighth grade
High School – Ninth through 12th grade
Post Secondary – College
Elementary school children discussed Dove’s poem, “The First Book,” and then created works of visual art inspired by the poem. Juried by GPC Humanities faculty and GPC honors students, Isaiah Reid (Narvie J. Harris Elementary School in Decatur, Kindergarten through second grade) took home first prize. Abbey Crossman (Still Elementary School in Cobb County) and Makari Pruitt (Narvie) tied for first place in the third through fifth grade category. They each received a $25.00 award. Their work is displayed in the Beulah Missionary Church sanctuary lobby.
Elementary School Curriculum
Middle school students also read “The First Book.” They discussed how to use metaphors, a figure of speech in which something is described as being similar to something else. GPC received 51 middle school entries, which were juried by GPC Humanities faculty. Kandace Barzey and Simara Ainsary, (Ivy Preparatory Academy), tied for first place and each received $50, with $25 going to the second place winner Janavi Ramesh, also from Ivy Preparatory Academy.
Middle School Curriculum
High school first prize winner Jada Graves (Social Circle High School) garnered the first place prize of $100, while Jah'son Fuller,(Clarkston High School) received $50 for second place, based on their interpretation of Dove’s poems, “My Mother Enters the Work Force,” “I Have Been a Stranger in a Strange Land” and “Rosa.”
High School Curriculum
GPC’s first place winner David Robinson (Clarkston Campus) based his poem on the interpretation of Dove’s work, “Banneker.” He received $150 as the first place winner and Oanh Nguyen of GPC’s Newton Campus was awarded $75 for placing second.
Winning Poetry
Middle School Winner
Gateway Unknown*
by Kandace Barzey
Ivy Preparatory Academy
Buckle up!
Once inside,
You’re not ready for this unpredictable ride.
A window into another world, just simply take a look.
Come on in!
Don’t just peek, you are in for a special treat.
Escape through darkness, light, good times and bad,
This will be the best you ever had.
Memories for life, for a small price,
To a new world you’ve never seen.
No permission necessary,
These memories are legendary.
Full of suspense the end is near,
See, I told you there was nothing to fear.
*Based on Rita Dove’s poem, “The First Book”
Middle School Winner
Mystery Books in Your Head*
by Samira Ansary
Ivy Preparatory Academy
Mystery books bug you.
They are fleas that bite you.
Disturb you, take over you.
They are impasses,
That never let you escape.
Until you’ve read EVERY SINGLE WORD.
They are invisible creatures.
Hiding in the words flowing in the books,
Making you anxious to read more.
They are tigers, lions, and cheetahs,
That their prey is…your mind.
Don’t you think
That they nip you and torture you?
Don’t you think
That they hurt you and give you grief, curiosity,
And make you feel desperate?
Don’t you think
That they take away your breath
And also make you inquisitive?
Just remember,
That mystery books as despots in charge,
Ordering you commands to make you read them more.
It is true,
That mystery books are aliens taking over the world…
And you, too.
*Based on Rita Dove’s poem, “The First Book”
High School Winner
She was young*
by Jada Graves
Social Circle High School
She was young, yet she was old
enough to understand the way freedom
operated. The way freedom had never
been so cold, suffocating—confining.
She was an optimist, once upon a time,
though it seemed to have faded with her
youth. But, oh, she was young! She was
brave! She had hope. As her back pressed
into firm, warm asphalt. As each
roar of the bus engine threatened her life.
She lay there, unmoving…this was her fight!
It was her fight for freedom redefined
the way her visions had prophesized.
She, too, had a dream.
Marching and taking risks only seemed
right. Life without liberty lacked the very
essence of life. She fought, and she won
though she can’t see it that way. She’s
old and tired, and underappreciated.
She lives to serve and in a way, not
much for her has changed. A
lifetime of work and nothing to
show for it. No. For her, not much
has changed. Bur as for me, I am
young! I’m her legacy. Thanks
to her (and others alike), I can be
free. And in the eyes of my granny,
MY little ol’ granny, that’s worth
Everything.
*Based on Rita Dove’s poem, “Rosa”
Post Secondary School Winner
At Last*
by David Robinson
Georgia Perimeter College Clarkston Campus
Banneker, Douglas
Carver, King.
From where did these
and other
illustrious names arise?
Had they been Dogon
or Batutsi, perhaps
Hadza, or even Cherokee
would their names have lived
as well?
Blood spent to provide
answer to this riddle
of one man belonging to another
haunts
these names.
They lived always
under the burden,
the question,
the laughable insistence
that their worth was somehow
tarnished by a darker skin.
As if color determines
the light in a mind.
Crimson price paid
by ancestors unknown
still exacts payment,
though that price would be
far more
had those hideous ships
never sailed.
*Based on Rita Dove’s poem, “Banneker” |
