Wanted: High School Poets and MCs for the Tom Lee Contest
Memphis River Parks Partnership, with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is launching the Tom Lee Contest for outstanding poetry and spoken word. The winning poems or spoken word pieces will be performed as part of the annual Tom Lee Day celebration on May 8, 2022.
Open exclusively to high school students in 2022, the prize will expand to offer a regional and national competition in 2023, the same year that the new Tom Lee Park opens to the public.
The Tom Lee Poetry and Spoken Word Contest will recognize outstanding work by students in the 9th through 12th grades. Their work should be inspired by Tom Lee and the values of courage, kindness, selflessness and generosity that he exemplified.
Students should submit one original written poem or spoken word performance. All entries should be no more than 40 lines and spoken word performances can be submitted as a multi-media submission.
All winning poets will be awarded with a cash prize, invited to perform on Tom Lee Day and will have their work professionally recorded and posted online. The first prize winner will receive $300, the second prize winner will receive $200, and the third prize winner will receive $100. In addition, the teacher for each of the students will receive a gift card of the same amount.
In partnership with the Orpheum Theatre Group’s Community Education and Community Engagement Department, writing workshops can be offered to help students refine their work.
Final judge for the poetry contest will be award-winning and widely published poet Marcus Wicker, an associate professor of English at the University of Memphis.
The prize is supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for Theaster Gates’ A Monument to Listening in Tom Lee Park. His new public art work will challenge visitors to address equity, opportunity, and the African American experience through Tom Lee’s history. The winning poems and spoken word performances will become part of an online archives of performances that will complement Mr. Gates’ work.
For more information on the contest, read the rules and guidelines here. To learn more about Tom Lee, read Michael Finger’s Tom Lee: A Hero’s Tale; and watch historian Otis Sanford explain Tom Lee’s importance in Memphis history.
