A Gold Medal Portfolio Award is the highest honor students can receive in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Jurors choose portfolios by high school seniors whose works best represent the Scholastic Awards’ judging criteria: originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal vision or voice. These remarkable artists and writers will each receive a $10,000 scholarship.
For the next few weeks, we’ll be profiling the 2022 Gold Medal Portfolio recipients. Next up are Amina Adeyola and Mac Barnes.
Amina Adeyola
A lot of my life has been wondering if I fit into the world I live in. As a Black Muslim queer woman, some days it feels like I am not wanted by the home that was forced onto me. So through writing, especially poetry, I’ve been finding a way to create my own home. A place where I can flourish and a place where my identity is more than my suffering.
My Grandmother Says She Still Can Whoop My Father’s Ass Which Is to Say
POETRY
Amina Adeyola, Grade 12, Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, Chesterfield, VA. Gold Medal Portfolio, The Maurice R. Robinson Writing Portfolio Award
Queen Nandi, how often did you
slap Shaka Zulu with a wooden comb?
did you tug on his shoulders, wishing
for stillness and, like thunder, threaten,
“Shaka kaSenzangakhona!” did you
know his name would become threat
enough? and your name, a song
birthed from a new nation.
i think of you, untouched in war, smelling
of coconut oil and the stars’ unwavering
breath. stubborn son winces under your feet.
umi, when you birthed the warrior king,
did you know he would be tender-headed?
//
my grandmother talks to me on our porch, the red
paint peeling from years of rain. she says
she used to write poems, just like me. she recites the one
she remembers, the wind stilling, and this poem must have
belonged to the sky once. the way her hands move
to her own lyrics, she must know what it means to have the earth
taken from her grip. i ask her how many poems before we know
kingdom. to answer, we count the men who mistake our names
for their conquered land and i wonder if they’ll ever sit at my feet
or are they forever soldier? we talk about the zulu nation.
how queen nandi was shamed for love called illegitimate.
how her boy was claimed beetle before child, how she named
her son after a town’s disgrace. and her son conquered a nation
for her. what love but this is worth a war? i sit with my grandmother
and we hum a serenade until we fall asleep. and i dream of land after
a metamorphosis. mothers and no apartheid. a queen. my own nation.
//
man reaches his fingers into the dirt in which he came from.
he forgot mother. forgot language. but knows how war should
feel against his teeth. his diction converted to corded battle
plans. he is mighty. and soldier. and alone.
ama, he says and it’s unknown if he’s calling
for mother or his own hardened skin. his commander
taught him that armor is all he needs to be legend.
and as he fades, he yells: i believe, i believe.
//
before queen nandi was queen, she was in love.
raking a comb through an unknown boy’s hair. her hands
were rough but the only home a child ever needed.
so what if warrior meant nothing? and son was enough.
Mac Barnes
Quilts have long stood as a form of expression in the south often to communicate and advocate for social justice change. Quilted applique, the process of cutting out fabric pieces and sewing them directly on top of the larger quilt—as opposed to seaming pieces—has also long been a technique to create imagery within quilts. To further develop traditional quilted applique techniques, new materials were introduced such as vinyl, recycled materials, metallic threads, fire burning, and others.
The imagery, material choice, and themes for each piece were carefully matched to an interview with the individual, conducted at the date in the title next to their initials. These titles serve to indicate not just a snapshot in time but emphasize what is important: the individuals’ stories and lived experiences, not their identifying personal information. Each individual has a story unique to them, with themes ranging from loss to power and hurt to love, all of which are visually represented in their pieces.
Featured images: Mac Barnes, B.S. 07/20/2021 (Mixed Media) and N.H. 11/11/2021 (Mixed Media). Grade 12, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC. Gold Medal Portfolio, The Maurice R. Robinson Fund Art Portfolio Award
To see more Gold Medal Portfolio recipients, past and present, visit our Eyes on the Prize series.