Three students from Central Illinois have been honored in this year’s Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards. The winners are Sanaa Shipley Bey, a second grader at Whittier Primary School; Mackenzie Wakeland, a sixth grader at Mt. Zion Intermediate School; and Sean Conner, a tenth grader from Ridgeview High School, according to Amy Kent, a spokeswoman for Illinois Humanities.
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These three students are among 26 award recipients and 13 honorable mentions selected from a record 1,063 submissions, which came from 186 schools across the state. The awards celebration will take place on Saturday, September 19, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago.
The Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards is an annual event for poets in kindergarten through 12th grade in Illinois. The awards are organized by Illinois Humanities in partnership with Brooks Permissions, the Poetry Foundation, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. This year, winning poems reflect on personal experiences through themes of family, identity, heritage, belonging, and place.
Gwendolyn Brooks, who served as Illinois State Poet Laureate, established the Youth Poetry Awards in 1969 and continued them for over 30 years until her death in 2000. The awards were named in her honor when revived in 2017.
Sanaa Shipley Bey’s poem, "Brighter Than the Sky," captures the feelings of a star feeling neglected due to the arrival of a new star. Mackenzie Wakeland’s poem, "Numbers in Place of Names," addresses the emotional toll of loss and separation, while Sean Conner’s poem, "Never," reflects on cherished family moments and the impact of a homeless veteran’s presence in their lives.
For additional details about the awards ceremony and this year’s winners, visit the Illinois Humanities website.