The Halton Black History Awareness Society (HBHAS) is now accepting submissions for its annual Local Lens essay and video contest. High school students have until Fri., May 31, 2024, at 5 p.m. to submit their essays, spoken word presentation or video presentations on the theme “What Canada can do to improve cultural equality: Current status and solutions.”
Three winners will be announced on June 17, 2024, and awarded with an honorarium at the HBHAS Freedom Celebration Gala, which will take place on Aug. 1, 2024. Winners will receive an award alongside $500 for the first-place winner, $250 for the second-place winner, and $100 for the third-place winner.
February is an excellent month for considering submission topics, as Black History Month events are happening all around Halton. HBHAS suggests students take in some events as research for their essay or video submission.
Each essay submission should be no longer than three pages (or 2000 words); video and spoken word presentations should be only three minutes long. Judges will be looking for evidence of thorough research, the relevance of the topic to Halton’s multicultural history and/or contributors to that multicultural history, and the originality of the work.
Submissions should also include a reflection on what the author/presenter has learned from the experience of exploring Halton’s multicultural history and solutions towards improving cultural equality. The reflection piece can be separate from the three-page essay or three-minute video presentation.
This year marks HBHAS’ third annual essay competition; last year’s winner was Maya Jazayeri, whose prize-winning essay can be read here.
Also new this year is Keda Edwards Pierre, the HBHAS project director for the 2024 Local Lens Essay Contest. Pierre’s diverse experience includes 27 years in police services, and she is also an ordained minister, a “socialpreneur,” and an actor. Pierre’s mission, as quoted by HBHAS, is “to educate, innovate, contribute to, and collaborate with safe, equitable, and empowered spaces for marginalized communities.”
The contest application can be found by clicking here; for more information on the contest, go to the HBHAS website (click here). Submissions should be sent in Word and pdf file formats to HBHAScontest@gmail.com.
