adminalong with the top five students, Tristan Bezora from Gateway High School, Albert Mahachi from Rimuka High in Kadoma, Lisa Luka Makombore Scholarship Programme student from Hellenic Academy and Palmer Highfield High were presented their prizes by Ambassador Bruce Wharton at a colourful ceremony on Thursday evening.
Their prizes, certificates and a collection of literature books went to the students while their respective schools received a collection of Zimbabwean fiction sourced from Weaver Press.The essay contest was open to all high schools in Zimbabwe and schools selected the two top essays from Upper Six students. The finalists were then submitted to PAS who selected the ultimate winners.
Over the past month, students were asked to write a 500-word essay about Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred” and how it relates to them personally as well as their communities and the whole country.
The five young authors who were accompanied by their families had an opportunity to listen to a 30-minute reading from the African-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Rising in the Sun”. This featured production has been co-ordinated by Almasi Collaborative Arts Company, an arts organisation founded by playwrights Danai Gurira and Patience Tayengwa. It focused on the goal of professionalising the Zimbabwean arts industry.
Almasi, working with Julie Wharton, wife of Ambassador Bruce Wharton, has been co-ordinating a series of play readings since November 2012 with the objective of increasing the value of education in and through dramatic arts. The 1959 play, whose title is take from Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem (or A Dream Deferred),” chronicles the experience of a multi-generational black family in Chicago.
“The play enables us to develop the way we probe, understand and unlock the sub-world of scripts in order to make discoveries and go places that will enable us to stage much richer performances,” said Tawengwa during the launch of the reading series in November last year.
Black History Month was the inspiration of Carter G. Woodson, who instituted Negro History Week in 1926. He chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Online Reporter