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Arts at Michigan, ArtsEngine, and the Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service & Learning have created the Art 4 Activism initiative as an annual competition promoting student engagement and activism through the arts. The results are a series of competitions asking students to create written and visual art addressing social justice themes.

This Year's Competition

Arts at Michigan, ArtsEngine, and the Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service & Learning collected submissions for Art 4 Activism: A (Very) Short-Form Writing Competition. The winning writer gets their work incorporated as thematic content in a poster to be designed and distributed around campus during the Winter 2018 semester! This year's theme is "American Values?"-- writing submissions could take the form of a poem, a statement, a call to action, a creative reflection, a message-- as long as they got their point across in 500 characters or less!

We're excited to announce our winners in Art4Activism: A (Very) Short-Form Writing Competition

The theme for the competition was "American Values?" and the $300 First prize goes to Miriam Saperstein!

Miriam Saperstein's winning submission:

America will steal your land, your dreams, your heart, all while saying “I love you.” America will suck the life right out of you, singing “liberty, liberty, liberty.” America, don’t you know “I’m sorry” only works if you don’t do the same thing again? Healing’s hard work, America— we’ve got a long way to go, and the stakes are high. America, are you listening? Are you willing to try?

Our runners-up also receive prizes. In no particular order, they are:

Logan Tidstrom:

What do we value? We value ourselves. Our strength is that we are good. Our weakness is that we think we are perfect.

Brianna Kennedy:

Constantly watched and preyed on as young girl Constantly watched and preyed on as a Black child Constantly watched and prayed over as a young Black girl Because those who came before me knew from the moment I took my first breath What it was that I would have to face And those who come after me will know too Because as a Black woman I bear no right to who I am, because who I am will never be right to you.

Arthur Shi:

Our world is changing. We live in a united state of confusion; We live in disunited states of mind. Our world is changing. You act like you hate me; I don’t understand you. So I ask, if we're really so different: What are your American values?