Anihjah White ’22 wins high school writing contest

For VASJ junior Anihjah White, poetry has always served as a personal escape and a way to express herself. 

“I’ve always found poetry to be really beautiful and somewhat alluring. It just has a way of impacting people and making people really feel something,” she said. 

Participating in Ms. Wilson’s Tea Cafe club her freshman and sophomore years inspired Anihjah to join Mrs. Marxen on field trips to poetry workshops at Glenville Arts Campus in Cleveland. Anihjah’s dedication to improving her writing has paid off, as a recent poem she wrote won first place in Ursuline College’s high school writing contest. 

Anihjah’s poem, titled “I Can’t Breathe,” was selected out of more than 119 submissions. It will be published in Inscape, an annual fine arts journal published by Ursuline College. 

Anihjah said the inspiration for the poem came from her perspective as an African-American female and a teenager witnessing events that occurred following the outbreak of COVID-19. 

“In the poem, I touch on the tragic death of George Floyd, mental illness in teens during the pandemic, the California wildfires, and overall what it’s like being an African-American teenager and the struggles I’ve faced during quarantine,” she said. 

English teacher Mrs. Trotman said she was instantly in awe when she read Anihjah’s poem. 

“Her poem is a profound reflection on the dire need for racial equality in our country and was a beautifully articulated and powerful piece,” Trotman said. “I am immensely proud of her, and I hope she inspires others to continue to fight for justice and to always know the power of their voice.”

As for fellow students who may be interested in poetry, Anihjah’s advice is to write from the heart.

“Poetry isn’t just lines and rhyming; it’s your truth and what you have to say,” she said. 

I Can’t Breathe
Black girl, no comb in my napped curls
My skin glistens like black pearls
A shame my beauty is feared in this corrupt world
Tragedies I’ve seen as I sit alone with these intros of my soliloquies
Black king, no mask, but it’s hard for him to breathe
Ignorance spreads faster than COVID-19
Faster than the City of Angels’ burning trees
Young teens suffering mentally becoming angels before 19
I pray one day we may be COVID-free
But sickness of the heart can’t be wiped clean
I can’t breathe
— By Anihjah White