Photo Courtesy of Writopia Lab. Scholastic Awards alum Angelica Modabber with Writopia Lab founder Rebecca Wallace-Segall (left) and Writopia Lab instructor Danielle Sheeler (right) at the induction of the inaugural NYC Literary Honors.

Guest post by Alliance staffer Lisa Feder-Feitel

It’s rare to say “we knew you when” about someone who’s just 17, but Brooklyn-born writer Angelica Modabber has been submitting writing to the Scholastic Awards and earning accolades since middle school!

Therefore, it was not a surprise but a lovely honor to gather under a tent outside Gracie Mansion last month to see Angelica inducted in the inaugural class of the NYC Literary Honors. Stellar city scribes from Robert Caro (author of The Power Broker and LBJ biographies) to award-winning young adult author Walter Dean Myers were called to the stage to read and receive glittering statuettes. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg served as emcee, and perhaps because the event took place on “Poem in Your Pocket Day,” he read this rhyming tribute to one of the honorees: “I think that I shall never know, a poet as fine as Marie Ponsot!” Read More

Batrek Yassa. The Unwavering Son. Grade 12, Age 17. 2012 Gold Medal, Art Portfolio.

In this segment of our Eyes on the Prize series, we would like to introduce you to another pair of 2012 Portfolio Gold winners: Batrek Yassa and Leah Lierz:

Batrek, 17, is an artist and a senior at Jersey City Arts High School Program in Jersey City, NJ. Art has served as a form of comfort during a difficult time in his life:

I had tasted, during the fall of my fourteenth birthday, a bitter fruit. Barren in taste, sharp in texture; it pressed on the buds of my tongue and scraped the walls of my throat as it followed gravity’s downward pull, anchoring itself to the base of my stomach. Sweet is the apple, sharp is the lime, but bitter is the fruit of fate, and it is the latter of three that had cursed me with its tang. Fourteen years had proved inadequate in ultimately arming me against the fates, for it was in my sophomore year of high school that my mother learned of the silent plague swelling within her. Diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, her muscles, which had once throbbed with vigor, were now fated to wither, parched in the drought of pestilence. Read More

Photo Credit: Iñigo Sesma. Taken at Harrison Love's Compressed Culture show at the Greenpoint Gallery on April 6, 2012.

The art world can be a very daunting place, especially if you’re in New York City. There are surprisingly few places in New York that provide opportunities for young artists to show their work. Even with the resources that are available, exhibiting anywhere in this big city is a hard earned privilege.

This was no different for artist and illustrator Harrison Love, who won a Scholastic Art & Writing Award in 2004. Looking for the right opportunity to exhibit his work without feeling the bite of a gallery’s commission or percentage was no easy task. After looking for a year, Harrison was starting to become discouraged by the long wait list and huge commission percentage of galleries around the city.

Then, in the winter of 2011, there was finally a sign of light at the end of the tunnel. Read More

Photo Credit: The Adroit Journal. Samantha Marcus, Turn to Clear Vision. Grade 11, New Canaan, CT.

Hi! My name is Peter LaBerge. I am a seventeen-year-old high school student born and raised in Connecticut. This year, I received a Gold Medal in Poetry and a Silver Medal in Flash Fiction from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. I also received the 2012 Elizabeth Bishop Prize in Verse as well as the 2011 Renee Duke Youth Award from Poets for Human Rights.

In November 2010, I founded The Adroit Journal, a literary magazine for all ages with a special leaning towards the work of young writers and global human rights issues. The journal has claimed over 1,300 submissions from writers and artists across the creative spectrum—from college students in New York City to retired farmers living on the Spanish coast. Read More

Our very own Justin Nissley (2001 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards winner) will have his first New York City solo show, Saints and Sinners, opening this Thursday, May 3 at Splashlight.

Until recently, Justin was a resident in the Alliance’s Atelier, our very first artists-in-residency program supported by the Esther B. Kahn Foundation. Read More

Elizabeth Alexander. Song Sparrow. Grade 12, Age 17. 2012 Gold Medal, Drawing.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve been collecting poetry lines from all of you on Facebook and Twitter, which we’ll combine at the end of the month to create one long poem. We’ve also been featuring a Poem-A-Day on our Facebook page, which showcases poems from some of this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards winners. Today, however, is all about poems that you can take on the go – it’s Poem In Your Pocket Day! And, we’re celebrating it with Scholastic Award-winning poems that are 15 lines or less. Check ‘em out!

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The Invisible Poem
I once wrote a poem with invisible ink
So that when you saw it, you wouldn’t think it stinks
You see, I couldn’t think of anything to write
Nor any images to delight or excite
And so here is my sad little ditty:
Read More