Nine students from Camden County schools read their winning poems and received prizes at the fifth Annual Jessie Redmon Fauset Day in Lawnside on April 26.

The winners, competing in the first Spirit of the Renaissance Poetry Competition, were chosen from among 63 entrants. The theme was "Where My Strength Lies."

First place winners received $100, second place winners received $75 and third place winners were given $50. All received plaques. The winners are listed.

Fifth Graders
First place: Khalil Sanders, Forest Hill Elementary School, Camden
Second place: Lanaya Ward, D.U.E. Season Charter School, Camden
Third place: Dominique Arrigo, Lawnside Public School

Seventh Graders
First place: Ashley Arrigo, Lawnside Public School
Second place: Shatavia Prescott, Lawnside Public School
Third place: Tasneem Elsayed, Lawnside Public School

High School Students
First place: Maryam Aziz, Haddon Heights High School
Second place: Jeremiah Council, Leap Academy Charter High School, Camden
Third place: Sharee Bookman, Creative Arts High School, Camden

Jessie Redmon Fauset was a Harlem Renaissance novelist, poet and literary editor for the NAACP's Crisis magazine. She was a protege of the legendary editor, activist and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois. Miss Fauset was born in Lawnside in 1882 when her farher was pastor of Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church. The Lawnside Historical Society began honoring Miss Fauset in 2004.

Nasir Dickerson and the Renaissance Messengers performed music from the Harlem Renaissance. Napalm (Lamont Dixon) performed his own works including a congratulatory poem for the winners. Sandra Turner-Barnes, executive director of the county Cultural and Heritage Commission, herself a performance poet, also read.

The program was funded by a grant from the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission through the local regrant program of the New Jersey Council for the Arts.

The Lawnside Historical Society is a qualified organization of the New Jersey Cultural Trust.