Three minutes or less. That’s how long it will take young poets to help save lives and heal communities riven by guns and gangs in the “Speak Your Peace 2” contest from Project Safe Neighborhoods.
“We’re inviting students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 to enter a poetry contest containing a message against gang violence or gun violence in three minutes or less,” said Lou Lambert, PSN chairman for the U.S.V.I.
The group In 2006 initiated the highly successful Speak Your Peace songwriting competition that produced 17 winning songs written and performed by youths from 11 to 22 years in age. Those powerful songs with an anti-violence theme were professionally recorded, and 25,000 CDs were produced and offered free to every student in the territory.
“With having such success in the Speak Your Peace music contest, it was natural to give the territory’s young poetry artists a chance at being part of the solution,” said DaraMonifah Cooper, a PSN board member on the organizing committee.
Students are asked to create their own original poem against gang and gun violence, no longer than three minutes when read aloud and containing no obscenities. The young poets then record their work on their own or at a designated recording studio and then submit it through their contact at an assisting school or institution, or email it on the Speak Your Peace website. The deadline is March 5, 2010.
Age categories are Pre K to 3rd grade, 4th to 6th grade, 7th and 8th grade and 9th to 12th grade. The first 100 entries will receive Speak your Peace T-shirts. Judges will choose one winning entry from each category. Eight (8) winners who will be chosen from a pool of finalists in the following categories: four (4) from elementary school-aged youth (grades Pre K-3 and 4-6); two (2) from middle school (grades 7-8); and two (2) from high school (grades 9-12).
Winning entries will receive PSN backpacks, a gift certificate to a regional bookstore, a personally autographed copy of a published poetry book from an internationally acclaimed writer and a photo plaque of the student and institution administrator to be displayed in a prominent location at the school or institution. Each winner will also receive an international Amazon Kindle.
More information is available at www.speakyourpeacevi.com
