Farrell teen wins silver at NAACP competition

Aug. 3—Mia Clemons had an incredible experience winning a silver medal for poetry performance at an NAACP ACT-SO national competition in Boston.

"Especially to be around such incredible black women and black men who are completely excelling," said Mia, 15, a Farrell resident and rising sophomore at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center in Midland, Pa. "I love to write and I love to be around people. It just fills me up. It makes me happy."

The NAACP ACT-SO acronym represents Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics. Its mission is to recognize, prepare and reward African-American youth who exemplify scholastic and artistic excellence.

Mia received a gold medal at the regional competition in Coraopolis, Pa., and represented the Coraopolis NAACP branch at the national competition in Boston.

With writing, Mia embraces all artistic forms.

"I love poetry and I love journalism and I love podcasting and all that stuff," Mia said. "I feel like I can do it all."

Hundreds of young people from around the country gathered for this year's national ACT-SO competition. There are 33 categories in which the youth can compete under the major categories of STEM, humanities, the performing arts, visual arts, business and culinary.

Mia's category, poetry performance, was under the performing arts category.

"It's really a good opportunity for youth who have a passion and who are willing to do the year-long work and compete," said Mia's mother, Sandra Sanders Clemons, who accompanied Mia on her trip to Boston. "The judges were highly acclaimed in these particular fields. For her essay to be reviewed by these people and for her to get feedback to perform poetry, that helps her to hone her craft."

At the national competition, Mia delivered a heartfelt performance. Her poem, called "Deuteronomy 22," was inspired by real things that happen in the world, Mia said.

"I wrote it as a persona poem about a young girl who's dealing with the complex feelings that come with sexual assault and grappling with the role religion plays in that, and trying to deal with the fact that she feels unclean that she feels really far away from God," Mia said. "I want to not only shed light on it, but I wanted to perform it so that people could kind of understand the pain and the shame that grapples so many young girls and boys who have to deal with sexual assault in religious settings."

Mia dedicated a lot of time since the regional competition at the beginning of April in preparation for nationals. She worked with several poets to figure out what hand movements or which postures to use because she uses her entire body to perform.

"I met with some really amazing mentors and got to work with some of the most incredible people in the poetry and writing fields to hone my craft for nationals," Mia said. "It was a really really great experience."

The regional competition included students from 30 schools around the Pittsburgh area that were scouted for the different categories. In the national competition, there were 45 people in Mia's category. Most of the competitors were juniors and seniors in high school.

Mia said she practiced for many hours to get ready for nationals.

"I had been practicing for so many months, so many hours, so many days so that when I got there and I performed, it just felt like all the little pieces had come together," Mia said. "And it was really amazing."

Mia received scholarships in the amount of $3,000 from the regional and national ACT-SO performances and she said every cent will go toward her college education. She also won a current generation iPad and air pods.

In addition to her performance poetry, Mia is very busy.

She performed at the Sewickley Juneteenth community event and the Coraopolis NAACP Freedom Fund banquet. Mia has also been invited to write a poem for an upcoming movie being created by four-time Emmy Award winner Emmai Alaquiva.

Mia works for The Saturday Light Brigade Pittsburgh-based Saturday morning radio program. She just finished executive leadership camp after being elected as student council secretary at Lincoln Park. She is the youngest member of the student council executive team.

Mia is in the journalism program at Lincoln Park. As an incoming sophomore she aspires to be an editor and writer.

"I think journalism is super, super interesting," Mia said. "I still feel like I can do a bunch of things and not be glued down to one job."

Mia said she is already "stoked" for next year's ACT-SO.

"I definitely want to do it for the rest of my high school years," Mia said. "I really want to do poetry performance again because I really love doing that. I'm not sure which poem but I know that it's going to be really amazing and really fun."

Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com

Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com