Juneteenth Visions: 7th-grade Writing Contest
presented by the National Writers Union DC Chapter
presented by the National Writers Union DC Chapter
with Street Sense Media and Second Story Cards.
(Contest open April 1 – 30, 2026)
What is your hope for our shared future, and how can we work together to achieve it?
Awards
5-8 finalists will be printed in hard copies of Street Sense newspaper, as well as published online at streetsensemedia.org.
Three exemplary finalists will receive pizza-party gift cards.
Rules
Entries of 250 words or less.
Submissions Open in April.
A panel of National Writers Union members will review submissions, nominate finalists and select winners.
A panel of National Writers Union members will review submissions, nominate finalists and select winners.
What is Juneteenth?
“Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.
This was two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation — which had become official on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union Troops to enforce the new executive order.
However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865 and arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.”
The Caterpillar’s W.E.B. for Transformation. Purnell, Bruce. 2023.
Entry Guidelines
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You need a title — your headline, your tagline. Make it catch your readers’ attention.
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Your word limit is 250 or less, including the title. That means you won’t have room for a five paragraph report, so you’ll have to adopt a different style.
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Before you begin to write, decide how you will write. You may work in any style or form that feels natural to you and right for the piece. Are you an essayist, today? A poet? A humorist, or a philosopher? Are you some combination of these, or will you invent a form entirely your own today?
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Contests like this one are read anonymously to prevent bias, so you may not identify yourself or your school, which means no mascots and no revealing initials.
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Please respect that this is a contest, not a collaborative project. Write and revise this project by yourself.
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The title of the piece must be included both in the Submission Title answer box and at the beginning of the Submission answer box. This means the 250-word limit includes the title.
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Clicking the Submit button grants Street Sense media First Publication Rights and Electronic Archival Rights. You, as the author, maintains all Future Rights. Street Sense Media reserves the right to make edits as deemed necessary.
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If you are unable to use this form, contact nwudc@nwu.org
Meet Your National Writers Union Panel
is a Board Member and Secretary for the DC Peace Team, with experience in Local, State, and Federal Government. As a native Washingtonian, she’ll often spend her Saturday advocating for local residents alongside the Humanity Truck. As a Community Fellow and Community Advocate, she applies her many skills (artist, poet, playwright, life coach, journalist, and peace-builder) to community advocacy and local journalism. Knowing that live theatre is often the best way to engage communities, she said ‘yes’ when asked to do a live performance with Street Sense, and has now written and produced several performances spotlighting solutions to homelessness and to empower people in need. She adapts to fulfill whatever role is most needed to add value in her community.
Soleil Davíd
is a poet and translator from the Philippines and is the author of the chapbook Equatorial (Aklat Ulagad, 2024). She is a National Endowment for the Arts fellow, a winner of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, and has received support from both the Bread Loaf Writers’ and Translators’ Conferences, the Barbara Deming Fund, the Community of Writers, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, among others. Her translation of Carlo Paulo Pacolor’s The Compendium of Impossible Objects (Tilted Axis Press) is forthcoming in 2027.
Paul-Newell Reaves
is a ghostwriter and poet born and schooled in Washington, DC, where he grew up inside two Smithsonian museums. Former owner of a musicians roadie business, he has driven bands, singers and rappers as far from the mid-Atlantic as Miami and Las Vegas. His work has been published by Routledge, Stone of Madness Press, and Defenestrationism.net. Dues-paying member of the National Writers Union since 2015, he currently serves as DC-area Chapter Treasurer.
