Published:
Back for another year, we're excited to announce the winners of the 2026 Know Your Power Civic Engagement Art Contest! Art is a powerful tool to share social messages and inspire change. Countless artists have used their creative voices to speak truth to power and raise awareness for the important issues facing us - both now and historically.
As in year's past, Pepco, the DC Public Library Foundation and DC Public Library invited D.C. teens to find their power and use it to creatively address a topic that is important to them. We are honored to share their works with you and hope their talent and creativity challenges you to listen to and observe the city around you while looking to the teens who call this place home for valuable insight on how to create lasting change.
Learn More About Know Your Power
Photography
Winner | Evelyn (17), Tenley-Friendship Library
Artist Statement: I took photos in this collection at an Anti-Ice and Trump Administration protest/school walk out organized by one of my close friends. I really did not know what to expect going into the protest, for example how many people would be there or even how impactful it would be. Immediately when we arrived to the Lincoln Memorial, and I saw the amount of young students from the DMV come out to support the cause, it moved me to an extreme extent. Over 4,000 student showed up with their best posters, and the event had even gotten the Washington Posts attention. I had the intention of capturing the experience and the amount of energy in the crowd through photography. It was particularly moving because the whole experience captured the two sides of teenage life, especially living in DC. I feel essentially obligated to stand up for things I feel passionate about, also keeping in mind that I live in the city where the most change is made politically. So I feel obligated to participate in active movements in DC, but also all teenagers around the world want to feel a part of a community of strong young people who really are the future.
Runner-Up | Dallas (17), Palisades Library
Artist Statement: This self-portrait is about who I am. It tells you certain things about me and the different personalities that I have - I may have a similar look in each photo, but really each look is different.
I took 30 different photos of me and chose nine for this image. Then I made four black and white and five color images. I normally just use color, but when I was placing them, and tried the black and white, I liked the quiet. That’s one of my traits - Quiet.
I took three head shots and placed them in order from left to right, with the one in the middle being made up of three images. The black and white as the base in the middle, and the two colored images overlaid. The color images express more feeling and are louder - another trait that I have, Loud. Most people don’t think I am ever loud, but I can be in some moments.
I have also played multiple sports all of my life. Sports are very important to me and feels like another big part of personality. I played football when I was younger so I used half a football image along with half of an image of my face. This is because I have always been two-faced about playing football - I like the game but I do not like the contact. I have also always played basketball. Whether I am on a team or not, basketball is important to me because it's been a path. I’ve been on and off this path my whole life because of other sports. To me, the black and white image relates to me going off the path while the color image relates to me getting back on.
Writing
Winner | Luke (16), Georgetown Library
Artist Statement: This is a poem about the denial around mental health specifically for queer and trans youth.
You’re too young
His mother looked at him that night,
still working diligently at her computer and said,
“You’re too young.”
with those
sad
gray
eyes like that was all the comfort she could give, her words
an echo of her fears
even though her tone was steady.
To her, as long as he’s in church
away from ‘those kids’
and off social media,
he’ll be fine.
So he replied,
“Yeah, you’re right.
I’m fine.”
He’s said what he did before
but overall,
she’s always said something along those lines;
“You’re too young.”
So he was left, wondering
if she was wrong
or if he was
Broken.
Later he sat in his quiet bedroom,
leaving his mother to finish her work.
He frowned, his fingers tracing the checkered pattern on his sheets. Does everyone’s emotions do this
and they’re just numb to the pain,
the fatigue,
the headaches
the chills,
the emotions eating out their hearts?
Did no one feel a thing?
Even that he didn’t understand;
when he felt numb,
it was almost worse.
Like sleep paralysis;
he needed to feel
but was helpless
to something holding
down
his
heart
with long curled claws
like whittled, bent bones,
making him panic.
His thoughts are loud enough to make him scream. Please don’t hurt me.
That’s what it’s like when he’s numb.
Heart wrenching.
When every thought tells him
“You thought they liked you?
So fucking dumb.”
He’ll sit for hours,
staring at his bed sheet,
the birds chirping annoyingly outside his window until they realize he won’t be out
and quiet down when night drops,
Then he closes his eyes,
imagining he’s…he’s …dea—
But no.
He won’t commit suicide.
Why? Because
he’s too young
to feel so strongly.
So… are they
too young?
He asks his empty room, when they stop breathing, on the news,
in the street,
and in their homes? “It was just a mistake,” is reiterated
everytime
he asks
his
mother,
his
teachers,
their
parents.
They took so many pills; held them,
saw them,
and swallowed
all by mistake.
They walked up,
looked down
And jumped;
a mistake.
It’s sad
but let’s not dwell…right?
everyone
mourns
and parents tell their kids:
“You’re happy.”
“That won’t be you.”
“I didn’t raise you like that.”
“My child wouldn’t turn out queer.” “You’re too pretty to be a lesbian.” “You’re too young to feel sad.”
“-to be gay.”
“-to be trans.”
“-to be asexual”
“-to be loud.”
“-or loved.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll get better; just… smile.” “You’re overdramatic.”
“I didn’t raise a child who cries.” “Just have faith.”
“Just laugh.”
“Just…”
“Just…”
“Just don’t fucking talk about it.”
His head spins
as they ignore the pain,
going about their days uninterrupted
and he can’t help but sob
for himself,
for those kids.
Why? Aren’t you there for me?? For us???
Why can’t I be me? Whether that’s a girl or a boy or neither? Why??
Why?!
Of course,
they’re prepared,
she’s prepared,
saying
god loves him
and,
like a goddamn scripture passage they quote,
devoted to
their
own
words,
Children 20:26
“Why? Because…
You’re too young.”
You’re too fucking young.
Runner-Up | Abraham (17), Deanwood Library
Artist Statement: Its a speech that embodies my perspective about who I am and the way the world has been over the last decade. Something that brings people together, allowing for not just me to use this speech but to be able to connect with others in a way that relates to them.
Our Declaration Our Freedom
Oftentimes I can’t breathe neither can I see. You sometimes can feel like you’re able to win but it’s hard to win when you live in this colored skin. We fear that we can never be heard because of the way we look but they can never take away the pride you feel. They try to force you to step outside yourself. I’m happily queer does that mean I’m someone you should fear? Am I someone to hate because my point of view is different, I somehow cannot relate? Am I someone to blame, someone without fame? Am I some who can change the world, fight to make a better place, well let’s clue in we don’t have time nor the place so let me state my case. I’m black and proud. I am queer living with zero fear. People keep trying to be-little me, try and title me lame to silence me well if being lame means following a future granting me big fame where I live with no shame well then, I will do this all day. I breathe so I can see, so I can fight one step at a time because we need to stop this race-on-race crime. I take care of myself, I love myself but that doesn’t mean I fight by myself. I fight with my family, my friends, my brothers and sisters because they showed me how to love and care. These people make the finish line miles away but they don’t understand this is our race, our finish line the lives we live and strive for. It doesn’t matter what race we, so why are they trying to take that away? Why aren’t we all on the same page when this is neither time nor place. Why does ICE get to roll the dice and choose this violent taste!? I made this my home and we will not be silenced because quite honestly, I am sick of the violence. This world needs some clarification that is our declaration because the country needs to take some serious accountability. So today, THIS DAY during BLACK HISTORY, let US remind THEM that WE still PREACH the FREEDOM of SPEECH.
Visual Art
Winner | Emilie (17), Petworth Library
Artist Statement: I made this comic piece to articulate a feeling that I didn’t feel I could express in words. I come from a family of immigrants, and the vile and hateful rhetoric currently being employed against immigrants in this country makes my stomach turn. The idea that people who risked everything—their lives, their families, their homes—were somehow stealing or taking away from one of the wealthiest countries in the world was incomprehensible to me. This was my way of expressing that feeling.
Runner-Up | Ophelia (14), Takoma Park Library
Artist Statement: In my social studies class we were discussing the use of ( artificial intelligence) AI in weapons in the current military in the USA. My teacher made a comment about the fact that we had done a good job in reviewing different perspectives around AI in weapons, but reminded us we had not asked “ why should you be using weapons at all?” I realized I had never asked myself that question. When I was thinking about this art contest it occurred to me that I could try respond to this question in an art piece. I saw an image while looking for inspiration that showed an army helmet that said “ see all evil, hear all evil, kill all evil”. I was curious about it and when I was looking it up, I found that this photo came from around the time of the Vietnam war. I looked up what the saying could mean and learned this was a militaristic view basically saying “everyone that is not on your side is evil”. I think this idea is harsh, but right now can be applied to many different circumstances, like in politics and day to day life in America. It an idea that also seems to need weapons to protect it and keep it alive which is also a problem in the US right now. All evil is my representation of that idea.
Music
Winner | Jacob (16), Georgetown Library
Artist Statement: This song is from my Album called The Fools Anthems released on April 1st. I had made this album to represent how my music has gone so far with the high energy and the hopes to make it big. But there was a time in my life during freshmen year were I didn't have the motivation to make more music and I was just at a low and this song which is called "Phase" perfectly shows the emotions I was going through as during the phase I was in. I didn't have no hope in changing and was stuck for awhile but as the Album goes on I have ended up getting back to my feet and was able to learn more about myself and what kind of music I am into and which shows how it is to grow up because as you grow things change whether you realize or not and needing to learn how to be comfortable with change was a big part for me as I got older. I hope when people listen to this song they can fully understand the meaning behind it.
Runner-Up | Thomas (17), Anacostia
Artist Statement: This was my first ever song I made after being introduced to many similar genres of that nature. Around this time, I was still getting familiar on how to make music after taking classes like Digital Music and Band, which motivated me into making more music similar to it while also keeping my own style into it. Along with a friend, who came up with the came for it, this is "Threshold of Compelling Kicks", a song that should be able to define who I am and what I would like to continue doing in the future. I hope you enjoy it, and good luck to all of the other submitters!