CONGRATULATIONS
TO THE WINNERS OF THE 2025
TEAM WESTPORT
TEEN DIVERSITY ESSAY CONTEST!
@JerriGrahamPhotography
Kaila Patel (1st Place)
Liam Harrison (2nd Place)
@JerriGrahamPhotography
Kaila Patel was named the First Place essayist and awarded $1,000 for her work entitled “The Declaration of Independence: A Foundation, Not A Finish Line.” Kaila is a junior at Staples.
@JerriGrahamPhotography
Liam Harrison was named Second Place essayist and awarded $750 for his work entitled “Codex Officil Populi”. Liam is a sophomore at Staples.
“With tremendous talent and keen insight, they continue the important tradition of teen essayists whose voices help shape how we pursue inclusion, equality and engagement within our schools and town.”
The judges for this year’s contest were:
Michele Rubin, (Chief Judge) Director of Education, Programming, and Development, Westport Museum for History and Culture
Alex Giannini, Associate Director, The Westport Library
Shonda Rhimes, television producer, screenwriter, founder of Shondaland
All judges are writers.
Photos: @jerrigrahamphotography
Our Mission.
Issues stemming from multicultural shortcomings are national problems. Yet they exist in Westport too. Achieving and celebrating “a more welcoming, multicultural community with respect to race, ethnicity, religion and LGBTQIA+” offers us a tangible, achievable objective for community activities as well as opportunities for individual commitment.
If our neighbors represent all the parts of the world in which we live, that will strengthen the community’s fabric – the way our lives interact.
We will do a better job of preparing our children for their future.
Our lively civic discourse will become even richer when additional diverse viewpoints are represented.
And perhaps most importantly, we will increase the possibility that each of us — in our own ways and in our own lives — will experience, enjoy and grow from the richness of diversity in our community.
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Book Club
Drop in as you like. No pressure! Participate in whatever way suits you.
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Community News
Events and news for everyone.
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Parent Work Group
Parents come together to discuss ideas or concerns about supporting our children and students.
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Westport Public Schools
Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in our schools.
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No Place for Hate.
Learn about the program.
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Annual MLK Day Event
Join us each year! Co-sponsored by the Westport Library and the Westport Country Playhouse and TEAM Westport.
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Educational Resources
Recommended books, articles, links
HELPFUL RESOURCES
Calendar
It takes everyone together, not one group here or there. Othering, in all ists forms, runs through our society. It doesn’t affect one group, but all groups. Empathy runs through us all too. Together we are strong.
WESTPORT TURNED OUT FOR THESE TWO EVENTS HONORING
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Jelani Cobb is a clear voice in the fight for a better America. The dean of the Columbia Journalism School and PBS Frontline correspondent for two critically acclaimed documentaries, Cobb explores the enormous complexities of our history, politics, and culture, while offering guidance and hope for the future.
A longtime writer for The New Yorker, the editor of its anthology collection The Matter of Black Lives, and the author of Three or More Is a Riot (one of Kirkus‘s best books of the year), Cobb “combines the rigor and depth of a professional historian with the alertness of a reporter, the liberal passion of an engaged public intellectual, and the literary flair of a fine writer,” said Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker.
AT THE WESTPORT PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Westport Country Playhouse presented a screening of the Emmy-winning 2019 documentary True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, a
documentary film that follows Bryan Stevenson and Equal Justice Initiative‘s struggle to create greater fairness in the criminal justice system.
AT THE WESTPORT PLAYHOUSE
The annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration is a partnership between the Library, TEAM Westport, the Westport Country Playhouse, Westport Museum for History and Culture, and the Westport/Weston Clergy Association.
How can I help?
Help us achieve our mission to extend, and celebrate a more multicultural community. Your contribution will help support the Teen Essay Contest, special events programming, and other initiatives.