Young poet Shakwa Maisara from St John's Wood impressed competition judges so much they had to create a new prize for him.
Shakwa Maisara, 15, of Quintin Kynaston School in Marlborough Hill, St John's Wood, astounded judges with his poem Black Boys, at the Poetry Society's SLAMbassadors UK event.
Winners would have had the chance to be mentored by poets Joelle Taylor and Chris Preddie for a weekend, but judges thought Shakwa was too good and instead offered him the chance to work long-term with the Poetry Society, to help him carve a career in poetry.
Black Boys describes how he feels young black boys are given negative stereotypes in the media.
Lines from Shakwa's poem include: "Black boys, black boys, we're always on TV, not for good things but the bad things they see", and "We'll keep trying, won't give up the fight, we'll stand tall and state our rights."
Satta Briama, also 15 and from Quintin Kynaston School, entered the competition and won a place on the mentoring weekend.
The mentors will now help develop her piece, Colour, into a 10-minute set.
Satta will perform this piece during a major poetry event at the Southbank Centre, near Waterloo Bridge, on April 30, along with the seven other winners.
Her poem also highlights race issues, with lines including: "I'm not different from him or her, I've got the same features they got from birth. The one thing that's different is the colour of my skin," and "People come in all shapes and sizes, men are competitors and women are the prizes, but what we don't see if the urge to be free is sometimes not possible in our society."
The competition was open to anyone aged between 12 and 18, and living in London, and the project was supported by the Goverment's department for children, schools and families, and Aldgate and Allhallows and Barking Exhibitions Foundation.
All videos from the competition can be found on the Poetry Society website, at www.poetrysociety.org.uk
