PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (May 8, 2023) – This semester, Prairie View A&M University sophomore, Ezekiel Hunt, earned first place in the University’s 9th Annual Essay and Oratory Contest. According to Ezekiel, it’s an accomplishment he could not have imagined just a few short years ago.

“I was attending community college in Los Angeles on and off while working in retail, construction, security and every other kind of odd job,” said Hunt, who is majoring in psychology. “I was going through some things and wasn’t sure about where I was headed.”

It was actually while working on a security detail for the civic leader, Los Angeles Black Lives Matter Chapter co-founder, and, coincidentally, PVAMU’s inaugural Activist-In-Residence Melina Abdullah, when Ezekiel first visited Prairie View. It was an experience he describes as profound due to how closely it aligned with a short story he had written only a few months prior. The story, assembled for an English assignment, featured a main character (based on himself) who escapes violence in his hometown to attend a Historically Black College or University.

The experience prompted Ezekiel to take action and apply.

“Seeing the campus, meeting the faculty and interacting with the students motivated me to get everything in line in order to attend the university,” he said. “After being accepted, I packed my things and drove on the interstate to Texas, and have continued to do what I can to make the best of this opportunity ever since.”

According to Emma Joahanne Thomas-Smith, Ed.D., provost emerita, professor and director of the Toni Morrison Writing Program, Ezekiel represents the type of undergraduate student she loves to see participate in the essay and oratory contest—students who are seeking to sharpen their research and critical thinking skills, self-awareness, social consciousness and communications capabilities.

“For all of the contestants, the intellectual and personal maturation has been remarkable,” she said. “Nothing is more powerful in finding one’s voice and building one’s powers of expression than entering a fiercely competitive race like the essay and oratory contest whose themes tend to be rather complex and often polemic.”

In his speech—based on the four-page essay he prepared on the theme, Claiming Our Freedom—Ezekiel spoke about being inspired by a Frederick Douglass quote in which Douglass states, “I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

To Ezekiel, the quote represented an epiphany, a string of words that captured the essence of his own journey. He said, “’Praying with my legs’ was what I was doing without even realizing it—all of the odd jobs, going to community college and constant movement turned out to be legwork that positioned me for an opportunity I had been hoping for during a time when I felt trapped and frustrated.“

Stepping into the unknown to pursue a degree in a new state represented taking action instead of taking a wait-and-see approach. He adds, “Sometimes we want to do all of the flashy and fun stuff—but push away the things that are hard and uncomfortable to do. It is actually more rewarding when you put in the work.”

In addition to Hunt’s first-place result in the Essay and Oratory Contest, which included a $3,000 cash award, other awards and recipients included:

  • 2nd Place/$2,500 to Grachelle Jean-Philippe (Senior/Political Science)
  • 3rd Place/$2,000 to Zebadiah Lockett (Sophomore/Finance)
  • Honorable Mention/$1,000 to Brosha Seaton (Freshman/Teacher Education) and Roman Holder (Freshman/Political Science)

Since then, Ezekiel has continued to thrive at Prairie View A&M, including being a participant in the University’s Toni Morrison Writing Program, which features master classes taught this year by renowned former television personality, poet, journalist and author Kevin Powell. The legendary Nikki Giovanni was writer-in-residence during the program’s inaugural year.

PVAMU’s Essay and Oratory Contest began in 2014 with funds provided by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Today, the event, which is supported jointly by the Office of the President and of the Provost, continues to make a positive impact on students who participate, as well as on those who receive the messages conveyed by the words in the essays and speeches.

According to Thomas-Smith, “Language is the tool that makes and keeps human beings human, recalling a well-known quotation by Toni Morrison, ‘We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.’”

By Sara Kaplaniak

-PVAMU-