Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest winners announced

The 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest winners have been selected. Winning essays will be on display at Kelvin Smith Library, and winners will be recognized and read selections from their essays at a reception Friday, Feb. 26, from 4 to 6 p.m. in Kelvin Smith Library. Registration for the reception is available online. The winners are:

• First place student prize: Mikel Jordan of Cuyahoga Community College
• Second place student prizes: Unnati Amin and Sierra J. Lipscomb, both of Case Western Reserve University
• First place staff prize: Liza Reed of Case Western Reserve University
• Honorable mention staff prize: Dorothy Oluonye of Case Western Reserve University

Based on the strength of their work, students Austin Stroud and Shadi Ahmadmehrabi have been invited to read at the reception along with the winners. First place winners will receive $300, two tickets to Playhouse Square's production of The Mountaintop, and a copy of King's last book Where Do We Go from Here? Chaos or Community. Second place winners receive two tickets each to The Mountaintop and the honorable mention winner receives a $50 gift card.   The MLK essay contest is supported by Dominion, The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, The Cleveland Humanities Collaborative, Voices from the Village, The Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, the Martin Luther King Celebration Committee, Playhouse Square, The Office of Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity and Kelvin Smith Library.