By Elsa Bermudez, Associate Director of Specialty Programs
On Friday, March 28th, 2025, Malcolm and I led the Open Mic for Scholastic Award winners at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC! The event was beautiful: 40 teen writers shared innovative, heartwarming, powerful, and often funny excerpts from their 2025 Scholastic Art & Writing gold key-winning pieces to an audience of friends, family, and peers. Participants shared excerpts from their fictional stories, nonfiction, personal essays, poetry, and even songs! A captivated audience had to be asked to make room for a new full audience every half-hour.
It has been a joy partnering with The Scholastic Awards for the past 18 years, serving as their Affiliate in Washington DC and Westchester, and curating events like this one in New York City so young writers have the opportunity to connect with their audience of readers.
And the setting could not have been more perfect.
It was an honor to gather at the Met, a place of study, learning, art, voice, culture, and hope. Congratulations to the following 2025 award winners who read at this fabulous event:
- Aleena Alauddin
- Isadora Ardizzoni
- Ela Aspegren
- Livia Basche
- Sascha Belcove
- Vivian Bortree
- Lyra Calub
- Isabella Canada
- Masua Chaiken
- Brian Chan
- Scarlett Collins
- Marwa Delaware
- Miriam Engber
- Soefi Eusebio
- Cosi Field
- Opaline Fournier
- Simona Freed
- Beatrix Gruver
- Callum Hicks
- Joshua Kaplan
- Avital Kessner
- Serena Lin
- Campbell Lindberg
- Lucas Lui
- Nova Macknik-Conde
- Zoey Marcus
- Paulina Milewska
- Aris Mishra
- Vanessa Niu
- Teagan O’Rourke
- Thu Lan Perales
- Brandon Ramon
- Lorelei Rey
- Amelie Rhew
- Twyla Shand
- Prishaa Shrimali
- Subah Sikder
- Isabella Villalon-Meyers
- Laila Wong
