Khelonji Bulluck is one of the winners of D.C.’s first-ever Mikva Challenge, a speech tournament on Dec. 8. (Photo by Jamaal Abdul-Alim)
Banneker High School student Khelonji Bulluck didn’t need a microphone to say what he had to say Dec. 8 at a citywide “soapbox” tournament. The passion with which he spoke against the federal government’s war on drugs enabled him to amplify his speech loud enough for all in the room to hear – even though the microphone was temporarily out of order.
“In my neighborhood there is a war,” Bulluck told a packed conference room at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Northwest D.C. “The media is telling me this war is protecting me and that without it my community would be so much worse. But after 40 years and one trillion dollars, my community does not seem any safer.”
Bulluck suggested the United States follow the example of Portugal in its 2001 decision to decriminalize the personal possession and use of illicit drugs – an approach he said has not led to greater drug usage. For this, Bulluck captured first place in D.C.’s first-ever Mikva Challenge – a speech tournament named after former Chicago Rep. Abner J. Mikva, designed to get young people more politically engaged.
“The best way to do that is through youth voice and youth action,” said Brian Brady, national director of the challenge. The challenge began as an “action civics” project in 1997 in Chicago as a tribute to former White House counsel, judge, and U.S. Congressman Abner Mikva.
“A lot of times we lecture kids to get involved, and that doesn’t work,” Brady continued. “What we found in Chicago is the best way to get them politically involved is to let them do it. To actually let them be politically involved and give speeches and then organize and try to take action.”
The judging panel included Federal Election Commission Chairwoman Ann Ravel; DCPS Social Studies Director Scott Abbott, Busboys and Poets Founder Andy Shallal, D.C. Councilman David Grosso (D-At-large); Grosso’s Deputy Chief of Staff Christina Henderson; business attorney Adam Proujansky, a partner at Dickstein Shaprio LLP; and Ameir Jeffries, a graduate of Luke C. Moore High School and now a student at Montgomery Community College in Maryland.
“I am really heartened by all the knowledge and information that you all imparted on us,” said
Shallal. “Not only did you speak articulately, but you had a thorough and in-depth understanding. It wasn’t something you just read or Googled.”
Grosso said some of the speeches resonated with him personally. When Aviva Nemeth, Edmund Burke School, spoke about the need for more affordable child care options, Grosso said it was informative and mentioned a measure he introduced recently to grant up to 16 weeks of family leave to District workers.
And when Reece Pauling, a Jefferson Academy middle schooler, who won second place for her speech, compared school lunch to sewage, Grosso said she was “spot on” after having recently sampled school lunch himself at several District schools.
Tiara Small, Luke C. Moore High School, took third place for her speech about how many students graduate from high school without knowing how to read well. Lashawn Massenberg, of Thurgood Marshall Public Charter School, won the “students’ choice” award for an emotional speech in which she recounted losing a brother to homicide. Other students touched on topics that ranged from homelessness to the need for better mental health services.
In a speech against gentrification, Nakfana Gidey, Wilson High School, said: “We need to preserve D.C.’s culture, D.C.’s people, and not let it crumble and wither away until what is left is only a sliver of a dream.”
Robyn Lingo, site director for Mikva Challenge DC, said the next step will be to help the young participants convert their ideas into action.