HONORABLE MENTION

Anaya Frazier is an imaginer from South Side Chicago, who seeks to manifest a better hood through her poetry. The 17 year old spent her early childhood in the Ida B. Wells Homes in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood. After the dismantling of her home and community as a result of citywide demolition of housing projects, she relocated with her family to the Roseland neighborhood on the far south side of the city. She attends Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory High School where she, like the school’s namesake, writes and performs her powerful poetry. Her work is in the legacy of the women in her family and it aims to make space for all of her identities. For the past three years, Anaya has played an active role in Chicago Freedom School. She is the program associate for Project HealUs, the organization’s youth-centered reproductive justice program. She considers herself an activist and a community organizer and has plans to create her own organization for youth of color.