Eden Prairie High School’s Black Student Union celebrates Black History Month with an art contest open to all EPHS students.

Students can submit a drawing, poetry, painting, song, dance or any other forms of self-expression to the contest. Entries can be submitted every day up to February 25th, and BSU student organizers choose a few winning entries every Friday for the rest of the month. Winners receive free EPHS merch.

Read our Q&As with some of the winners:

• “Silence Is Violence”–Q&A with Eileen Kim

• Creating a Portrait With Only a Pen- Q&A with Lily Cooper, Winner of Black History Month Art Contest

• Rhymes, Amanda Gorman, and Poetry as an Outlet–Q&A with Sumaya Hussein

• Inspired by Rosa Parks – Q&A with Teressa Nkrumah

• A Portrait for Women Empowerment- Q&A with Sarah Mullah

• What Is Color?- Q&A with Asma Bakari

Friday, February 26th Week 4 Winners:

Momentum by Lillian Ekness

Art, by Sarah Mullah

What is Color?

by Asma Bakari

A concept created to divide.
It’s relevance still stands.
Hardships conquered.
A long way to go.
What is color?

Diverged minorities.
Satisfied sculptors.
Ironies blinded.
Myths broadened.
What is color?

Truth seen
Woke wits
Carvers questioned.
Time diminished.
I now understand.

Friday, February 19th Week 3 Winner:

Teressa Nkrumah

Friday, February 12th Week 2 Winners:

Art, by Eileen Kim

Poem, by Favour Nache

I am who I am

I never choose to be this way

Dark skin with big lips

An Afro with curls more curly than a spring

I am who I am

Why must you change me?

You look at me and darkness is all you have found

My presence alone makes you feel so insecure so you bring me down

I am who I am

Created by God

Made in His perfect image

And there is nothing you can do

Nothing you can say to further oppress me

I am strong

I am black

I am a child of God

And I am Proud

Because I am who I am

Friday, February 5th Week 1 Winners:

Drawing, by Lily Cooper

Poem, by Sumaya Hussein

Years,

of history stain the ground,

overflowing with sound,

of our ancestors’ footsteps,

hitting the ground.

They continuously pound,

pound these ideals onto our kin,

once again and again,

all because of the mere color of our skin.

Does my blackness alarm you?

Does it somehow harm you?

How is it that the color of my face,

increases my chances of getting maced?

This month,

holds the history that others find too “tough,” to remember,

the history that lives on even after our freedom come.

Physically free but forever in shackles,

body untainted but mind tarnished,

programmed to burst into this world,

with all of society’s ideals harnessed.

Well here’s a reminder

of the history that continues on longer.

of the hate that seems to just be getting stronger. And

of the youth who’s souls seem to wander.

Black history indeed holds true,

however the near future resides within you, you, who

will live to see tomorrow’s new, you, who will be able

to rewrite it if you try to. yes, you.

Use this form to submit art or send it to [email protected].