Youth Writing Competition
The 2021 Youth Writing Competition winner is Zephaniah Martin for his book “Jaheem’s First Kwanzaa.”
Our Kwanzaa values of unity (Umoja) and purpose (Nia) guided our event
Zephaniah Martin's book Jaheem's First Kwanzaa not only won our 2021 PPGJLI Youth Writing Competition but was chosen by Amazon as the #1 New Release in Children's Kwanzaa Books!
We are so very proud of him!
You can enjoy listening to him read his book below.
As we encourage our youth to tell stories as Zephaniah did, we help:
preserve culture
share history
build community engagement
promote literacy
And when you buy the book, you help us to bring forward more stories.
All proceeds from this book will support the programming of Planting People Growing Justice
Thanks to a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council through the Minnesota Disaster Recovery Fund and Kinara Park Kids who served as a corporate sponsor, Zephaniah received:
$200 cash award
10 copies of his published book
recognition at our annual community celebration
This competition was open to Minnesota residents ages 8-17 who are of African American descent, and we look forward to future competitions.
By providing unique art-based cultural development opportunities like this one, youth improve their reading, verbal, math, and problem-solving skills.
These skills not only set them up for success in school and later in life but are a central part of multicultural understanding and acceptance.
It is our mission to provide African American children with representation and teach them about their rich history.