ACT-SO: Everyone is a winner

New Crisis, The, Sep/Oct 2000 by Simmons, Judy Dothard

Only 70 or so of about a thousand students entered in the 24 events of the AfroAmerican Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) ever get gold, silver, and bronze medals; and the odds are against repeat wins by prior-year medalists. Yet Kiyoshi Shelton and Bernard Randall, two young men from the Ypsilanti-Willow Run, Mich., branch were both at the 2000 national convention for a second year of competition.

"I got a chance to come on stage and kill the camera. That was me," said Randall, referring to the videotaping of the 1999 competition. "I'm hinda proud. I plan to do my best this year." Bernard competed in tap dancing both years. He won silver in 1999. This vear he finfished out of the running. However, since he's still in high schools senior this fall-he can enter ACT-SO one more time.

Kiyoshi Shelton didn't place in the 1999 nationals. "It seems like I did pretty good-fours and fives, from what I heard; I didn't get my evaluation sheet back," he said. Shelton competed in poetry in '99. "This year I didn't make it locally in the poetry category, but I did make it in original essay."

Asked about the purpose of the NAACP in addition to ACT-SO, Randall replied, "This is my third year now. We try to bring the community closer together. We involve youth in such activities as ACT-SO to channel some of the energy they have in a positive manner, you understand. The way we carry on-this is our future."

Shelton, 18, who was slated to enter Eastern Michigan University this fall, said he is involved in the NAACP Youth Council as well as ACT-SO. "It's not really too organized at this point. We have been doing meetings, late last year and earlier this year, trying to organize community events. Right now we're at the beginning stages. We're hoping to do other things in the future."

ACT-SO is a family affair for the Sheltons. "My brother was the third place ACT-SO national winner in the contemporary music category a couple of years ago. He did saxophone," Kiyoshi Shelton said. "He told me all about it, and my friend Bernard, too. From what I heard, it inspired me to write more and come out and be around other AfricanAmerican students doing the same things as me."

Another competitor following a sibling's lead is Leigh Hernandez. an Albuquerue, N. Mex., high school student. "I am playing classical piano, and doing a science project in mathematics," she said. "My piano selection is Spring from `The Four Seasons' by Vivaldi." She was preceded in ACTSO by her sister, Gabriella, now 19.

"It's a great way to get introduced to the rest of the world," said the older Hernandez sister, a volunteer coordinator at this year's national ACT-SO. The Boston University junior who's double-majoring in biochemistry and art history won the New Mexico state ACT-SO competitions two years running. In the 1997 nationals she took a bronze in mathematics. She competed in biology, playwriting, and painting at the '98 convention, didn't place, and said that was okay, too.

"ACT-SO gave me exposure. It was great to have the opportunity to meet all these people," Gabriella Hernandez said. "In New Mexico I'm like a big fish, the rest of the world I'm not. I learned what I was good at, and what I needed to build up."

Also competing this year from New Mexico were Siobhan Robinson, Brittany Williams, Bianca Townsend, and Nicole Bradford. Robinson said she was competing in oratory, playwriting, and dramatics. "For oratory, the author is unknown, but the title is, `The Strong Black Woman Is Dead.' It has a big twist to it," she teased.

Williams, a high school senior, said she was "doing vocals, singing contemporary and classical." Asked about her role in the New Mexico chapter, she explained, "We host the local competition, break it up into whatever part of New Mexico you come from-- Albuquerque, Rio Rancho-and it's pretty much like the nationals."

Bianca Townsend entered the nationals in both original essay and poetry. "I participated last year but only won locally, not at the state level" she said. "This year I took a gold medal and so I am able to come to national."

Fourteen-year-old Nicole Bradford stated, "I'm reading a poem written by myself. This is my first time at national." She also mentioned her community involvement. "There's a lot of discrimination. I'm from a nonprofit organization called Stepping Stones," which she described as a referral agency for social services. "We have, like, cases where they [Mexicans]would go to a public hospital and they would get treated bad and some of 'em died, so there's a lot of discrimination against Mexicans also."

Leigh Hernandez noted two concerns of the Santa Fe chapter. "In Santa Fe they've been moving to not build more prisons just for jobs. They feel that it's encouraging the society to make criminals. Also, a white boy killed Demetrious Sims. He had just come to New Mexico from Atlanta to live a better life, and he was stabbed to death at a high school party. They allowed this boy to go free. The NAACP is trying to start this trial up again and have this boy convicted." Summing up, she said, "A lot of things like that happen in NM. We're outnumbered, and the NAACP is trying to do something about that."