Ten Mobile-area high school students were named finalists in the Mobile County Community Remembrance Project’s Racial Justice Essay Contest, a competition that carries $8,000 in scholarship prizes. The finalists represent Accel Day and Evening Academy, Baker High School, C.F. Vigor High School, Murphy High School and Saraland High School.
The placement is as follows:
- First place: Jaden Clemons (Sr., Vigor) was awarded $2,500 for his essay on police brutality.
- Second place: Karrington Jones (Soph., Saraland) was awarded $1,250 for her essay on Mobile history and its future.
- Third place: Fatima Abdulla’s (Jr., Baker) essay on Arab-American racism tied with Lattreal Wilder’s (Soph., Accel) essay on racially based obstacles and Jayda Blair’s (Jr., Baker) piece on criminal justice. Each received $1,000.
- Fourth Place: Macaiah Beck (Jr., Baker) was awarded $750 for her essay on race and economics.
- Fifth Place: Jasmine Rhodes (Jr., Baker) was awarded $500 for her work on inequities.
- Honorable Mentions: Aniya C. Thompson (Jr., Murphy), Kiara Mosely (Sr., Baker) and William Starling (Jr., Baker) won for work covering racial injustice, educational gaps and racial violence.
The announcement ceremony took place at the Mobile County Public School System board room on June 28.
The project is in conjunction with the Remembrance Project’s efforts to memorialize lynching victims throughout Mobile County and was coordinated with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery.
The judges of the 800-to-1,000-word essays were University of South Alabama professor Kern Jackson, Ph.D., 2020 State of Alabama History Teacher of the Year Marcee Hinds and EJI staff members.
EJI elevated prize totals from the initial $5,000 to $8,000 due to the quantity and quality of submissions. Staff liaisons Elliot Spillers and Keiana West said they were “encouraged by the students’ vulnerability and critical analysis.”
Baker High School boasted the most finalists, and that influence can be traced to honors English teacher Laura Sadler. Her students finished reading EJI founder Bryan Stevenson’s book “Just Mercy” not long before the contest was launched in January.
“I thought it would be great for them and would tie into reading the book. So, I just assigned it and they were on their own to submit it to the contest. I think maybe 30 students submitted,” Sadler said.
EJI provided general guidance on possible topics. Three weeks of preparation led to the compositions, with Sadler giving research advice on database navigation and reputable resources. She cautioned them on search engine results.
“They needed four sources with at least one print source, like a newspaper or journal,” Sadler said.
The honors teacher said most of her students used pandemic-related virtual learning, so she was especially impressed by their diligence.
“I’m just incredibly proud and I think it was a very good learning experience, especially after reading Stevenson’s book. I think it was good for them to read other topics dealing with racial injustices in the past and connecting it to current events,” Sadler said.
Only two of Sadler’s students, Beck and Starling, attended the ceremony. She intends to congratulate the rest through email.
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Youngsters representing Mobile’s The PACT Theatre Company and Sunny Side Theater earned national awards at the 2021 Junior Theatre Festival Texas in Sugar Land, Texas, in late June.
PACT won a Freddie G Outstanding Production award. Reid Williams took home a Freddie G Outstanding Performance by an Individual award.
Sunny Side grabbed a Freddie G Excellence in Dance award, as performer Ousley Langworthy snagged the Freddie G Outstanding Student Directing and Choreography award.
PACT students Madison McPhillips and Cooper Irby, and Sunny Side students Ousley Langworthy and Taylor McLendon, were distinguished as Junior Theater Festival All-Stars, honoring particularly dynamic student performers.
PACT staged “Children of Eden JR.” and Sunny Side performed “Roald Dahl’s Matilda JR.” Judges were effusive about both groups.
“I was truly moved by PACT’s performance. The storytelling this group possessed was beyond their years,” actor Brion Marquis Watson (of “Hamilton” fame) said. Other judges said it brought them “chills.”
“The choreography and harmonies were spectacular,” Broadway actor Krystina Alabado (“Mean Girls,” “American Idiot,” “Spring Awakening”) said of Sunny Side.
More than 2,200 musical theater enthusiasts participated in the event, with 50 groups appearing in person and an additional seven groups participated online.
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Playhouse in the Park (4851 Museum Drive) will stage “Beauty and the Beast” July 16 through Aug. 8. The show features a cast of 60 and runs four weekends.
Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for children, students and seniors. Box office closes one hour before performance. Advance tickets are available at playhouseinthepark.org.
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