More Than
What They See
High school students are invited to write an original poem about identity and community for our poetry contest. Record a 3-4 minute video of yourself reciting this poem.
Deadline extended to October 10th at 11:59 p.m.
Most Creative Interpretation of Theme wins ACER Chromebook Spin 311
Best Performance wins Apple AirPods
Audience Favorite wins $50 Amazon Gift Card
In the poem “Hair,” Elizabeth Acevedo uses the physical trait of her hair to talk about her race, her family, and her ethnic community. She boldly declares, “But how do you fix this ship-wrecked history of hair?… You can’t fix what was never broken.”
In another poem “From the Arabic Root for Patience,” Sabrien Abdelrahman rejects the suggestion that she should change her hijab to a turban because “…it’s more ambiguous that way. Like maybe it’s a fashion choice rather than an affirmation of faith.” Throughout the poem, she talks about her hijab and her skin color to loudly push back against islamophobia, anti-black racism, sexism, and family pressures.
Contest Prompt:
Like Acevedo and Abdelrahman, write a poem in which you choose any physical characteristic (i.e. hair, skin color, clothes, facial feature, accessory, disability or bodily feature) people notice about you and then use it to shout something about your community or communities that you wish people would pay attention to instead. Your communities may be whatever you see them as—for example, your racial or ethnic group, country of heritage, gender, and/or disability community. Tell us something that you want to yell to the world. Then record a 3-4 minute video of yourself reciting this poem to share it with us.
Contests Rules & Guidelines:
- Submission Deadline extended to October 10th, 2022 at 11:59 pm PST. Submissions received at midnight or later will not be considered.
- The submitted work must be your original, previously unpublished writing.
- The contest is open to all students grades 9-12 residing in the United States.
- Only one poem video submission allowed per contestant.
- Submitted poem videos must be between 3-4 minutes. Judges will not view videos past the 4-minute mark
- Literary Legacies will celebrate poets during a Live Facebook event on November 16th and at this time publicly announce the contest winners. Finalists will be celebrated as they recite their poems live for friends, family and a larger Facebook audience. Judges will offer perspective on why they chose the winning poems.
- By submitting a poem video to this contest, you agree to have your video shared publicly on Literary Legacies platforms.
- Submitted videos may be publicly visible on the Literary Legacies website for voting. An audience poll will decide the Audience Favorite category.
- Additionally, your video may be selected to post on social media for promotional purposes.
- Writers who enter the poetry contest may be considered for publication by Literary Legacies. Selected writers will be offered mentoring and the opportunity to publish work in our forthcoming anthology We See Ourselves.
- We are happy to assist if you have questions or concerns. However, we strongly recommend that you plan to submit your poem video early, so we have time to assist you with any issues that might arise.
Recording Instructions
Record yourself reciting the poem you wrote in a 3-4 minute video using a phone, tablet, or another recording device. Although it is not mandatory, here are some suggestions for recording the best quality video:
1. Clean Your Lens: Carefully clean your lens with a dry cloth.
- Horizontal Orientation: Orient your phone or tablet horizontally.
- Avoid Back Lighting: Have the light source more to the side of you or in front you.
- Stabilize Your Device: If you can, use a tripod or mount the camera on a hard, stable surface. Alternatively, set the phone or tablet on a table between a few books to stabilize the camera or ask someone else with a steady hand to record you.
- Record Clear Audio: If you have headphones with a microphone, that can make the audio in your video sound clearer. Also, if possible, record in a quiet, closed space without background noise like fans, televisions, or chatter.
- Go to youtube.com and sign in. (This is the same log-in you use for Gmail.)
- Click your profile in the top right corner. Then go to “Your Channel”.
- Click the blue button labeled “Manage Videos” to go to Youtube Creator Studio.
- Click “Create” in the top right corner and then select “Upload Video” from the drop down menu.
- Click “Select Files” and choose your poem video on your device.
- After your video successfully uploads, find your video listed on the page. Under the column label “Visibility,” click the setting “Unlisted” and switch it to “Public” in the menu options. Click save.
- Copy the link for your video and paste it in the Literary Legacies Poetry Application Google Form. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzKhHNu9ljvxY0h9xDAV8kbbTMG-k084bnN8inuwv43z2USQ/viewform)
- IMPORTANT: Upload video by October 10th, 2022 at 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time.
For technical difficulties uploading your video, reach out to Sabrien Abdelrahman at sabrien321@gmail.com.
For other questions about the contest, contact Kulvinder ‘Kay’ Arora