Malcolm X Read-a-thon Boston

On the occasion of Malcolm X’s 100th birthday and Boston’s first-ever Community Read-a-thon of the Autobiography of Malcolm X, the Read-a-thon organizing committee is pleased to announce its first-ever essay and video competition for high school students entitled “How Is Malcolm X Relevant Today?” This contest seeks to recognize and uplift our teenagers as important change agents and thinkers from whom we all have much to learn.

The competition, open to all high school students living and studying in Boston, will award three prizes each in two categories: Written Essay and Short Video on the topic “How Is Malcolm X Relevant Today?” Students can submit one original, written essay or one video of an original poem, rap, song, or spoken word piece. Essays should be no longer than 500 words. Videos should be no longer than two minutes. Your essay or video should speak to how Malcolm X is relevant to you, your community, the City of Boston, the United States, or the world.
Questions you could ask yourself as you write your essay, poem, rap, song, or spoken word piece or create your video about the relevance of Malcolm X include:

• How has Malcolm X’s Autobiography changed you or your outlook on life?
• How have you exhibited exceptional courage to overcome challenges in your life as Malcolm X did in his?
• How do you stand up for racial justice?
• What work still needs to be done for racial justice and liberation today in your neighborhood / school / community / world?

Submissions should be uploaded through the link below between Saturday, March 1 and Friday, April 11, 2025. For a submission to be eligible for this competition, your essay or video cannot have been published anywhere in print or digital format. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to write your essay or create the original content for your video submission is prohibited and will make your submission ineligible for any prize.

The essay contest will be judged by local experts in teen writing and the video contest winners will be People’s Choice, chosen by online voting. Three prizes will be awarded for each type of submission:

• First Prize ($500)
• Second Prize ($200)
• Third Prize ($100)

The three Written Essay prize winners will be invited to read their essays at the end of the first day of the Read-a-thon and their essays will be published online. The three Short Video prize winners will have their videos shown at the end of the first day of the Read-a-thon, and links to their videos will be published on our social media and website.