The Washington Post’s KidsPost page held a nationwide contest for the ten best student poems of the year. Sixth grader Gerome Wood won and his poem “Yes!” was published in the newspaper on April 26. Here’s a hyperlink to the online edition.
In the Junior League of Washington’s 23rd Annual Youth Poetry Contest, our Hart Middle School students had six winners. Our writers swept the 6th grade prizes: 1st place to Gerome Wood, 2nd place to Jayla McMillian, and 3rd place to Tailyn Trapp. Crystal Rogers won 2nd place in the 7th grade competition and both of Jazzmen Graham’s poems won awards in the 8th grade competition, 2nd place and honorable mention.
In the 40th Annual Parkmont Poetry Festival, seventeen Workshop students were finalists and seven were winners: Javeon Brown, Xavier Carson, Esson Godbolt, Jayla McMillian, and Trus’ Stevens from Hart Middle School, and Leondre Johnson and Christa Madikaegbu from Ballou Senior High School. Congratulations!
The D.C. Creative Writing Workshop was named “One of the Best” in the 2021-22 edition of the Catalogue for Philanthropy! We are honored.
Although altered by COVID-19, the Parkmont Poetry Festival continued in 2021 and nine Workshop students were semifinalists. Four of them were winners. In fact, they were the only students from regular neighborhood DC public schools to win. Congratulations to DeMarco Randolph for “The Real Me,” Rahnell Jordan for “Hood,” Atrayu Lee for “My Imagination,” and Naquan Shepherd for “Staying Young Forever.”