“Oh Lord,” said a teary Brittany Lynch, “I feel like I just won an Oscar.”
The 13-year-old first place King Oratory Contest winner from Parish of the Resurrection School, St. Mary’s Campus, had only minutes before delivered a searing rendition of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” at City Hall.
That 1963 speech, as King himself noted, was “begun on the margins of the newspaper…[and] continued on scraps of writing paper.”
Though they were begun on scraps, those words have resonated in the years since, and were brought to life Monday by Lynch, who had competed in the contest four straight years. The winner of two previous honorable mentions said she was more confident this time.
“I think in past years I was nervous,” she said. “This year, it’s so much excitement, because I know it’s my last year – I don’t get a second chance.”
Joining Lynch in the winner’s circle was 9-year-old Elizabeth Ho, a St. Aloysius fourth-grader who delivered her version of “I See The Promised Land,” a sermon made by King on the eve of his 1968 assassination in Memphis, Tenn.
Her head barely poked over the council chamber podium, and she clasped the microphone in her hands, speaking in an even and clear tone.
Reflecting on why she chose the sermon for her speech, Ho, an aspiring writer and Harry Potter fan, said she was drawn to it by the exotic places that it mentions: Egypt, Greece and the Europe of Martin Luther.
Mayor Bret Schundler, who launched the competition six years ago, reminded the contestants of King’s importance before the finals: “When you memorize his words and recite them, you have a little bit of him in you.”
And for emcee and Hudson County election official Betty Outlaw, this was a chance for the city’s children to shine.
“You hear a lot about the bad,” she said, “but there are good things going on.”
Winners received savings bonds and a trophy.
Students across the city participated in the two-week long contest, which was broken down into two groups, grades 3-5 and grades 6-8.
Joining Lynch in the sixth to eighth grade group was second place winner Leon Parks, a P.S. 15 eighth grader, and third place winner Tonisha Peterson, a P.S. 6 seventh grader. Honorable mentions went to Asha Herbert of P.S. 22, Jessica Padilla, a Parish of the Resurrection eighth grader and Soleil Saquibal a St. Aloysius eighth grader.
In the third to fifth grade group, Ho was the overall winner, with Parish of the Resurrection fourth grader Rene Mulchansingh taking second, and St. Patrick’s School’s Keith Cajuste winning third. Honorable mentions went to P.S. 6 fourth grader Mabel Alvarez, P.S. 8 fifth grader Curtis Clarke, Jr., and P.S. 20 fifth grader Marcel Geslicki.