YAAS Entry 2025 News
YAAS ENTRY Washington Bound Maryam Jaffe, an 8th grade student at Sedona Red Rock Middle School, entered Sister Cities International YOUNG ARTISTS & AUTHORS SHOWCASE contest with her artwork entitled “Creating Global Friendships”. Maryam noted : "For this piece, I wanted to create something that would clearly convey the theme of “Friendship: The Heartbeat of Global Peace.” I wanted my artwork to be something that would really illustrate friendship and peace around the world”. Contest winners will be announced this summer
YAAS 2024 Update
2024 YAAS Entrant - Anisa Jaffe
The Young Artists and Authors Showcase (YAAS) is an annual contest that encourages youth (ages 13-18) worldwide to express the mission of Sister Cities International through original artwork, literature, photography and music.
This year’s theme was: Climatescape: Resilient Cities for Tomorrow’s Climate.
Anisa Jaffe, a senior at Red Rock High School who has been selected from Sedona to enter the international competition was recognized at the SSCA May 19, 2024 International Brunch. We thank her for giving voice to her concerns, having the courage and persistence to apply for this competition and for being selected to compete in the International Showcase.
Anissa is one of 5 children and has lived in many places arriving in Sedona just two years ago from California. As she says “ I found my group pretty quickly.” Anissa has been writing poetry for several years and wrote a book of poetry this year as a part of her AP English class. When asked about entering this competition, Anisa said “I’ve always wanted to enter a competition and it seemed like a cool opportunity.” Her poem “Everything we can do” reflects her concerns and her belief that we can all do something.
Anisa is a dancer, an artist, a poet. She is concerned about the future of our world and the environment and believes that we can all do small things to make a difference. She is glad that the city of Sedona is paying attention and trying to do positive things to sustain the environment. Anisa says that she is “eco friendly.” This year she did a social action project right before Christmas where she encouraged other students not to purchase products that do animal testing. She created a list of products to avoid and support. Anisa is a vegan for environmental reasons and carries a water bottle with her everywhere. At eighteen, Anisa is living her life with awareness of mother earth and our environment.
Anisa's Poetry Entry: “Everything we can do.”
Everything We Can Do
The Earth is dying
There’s nothing we can do
Everyone knows that
Don’t they?
We watch as it crumbles
But we don’t see
We listen as it cries
But we don’t hear
The Earth has fallen ill
Why can’t we see it?
It’s begging for our mercy
Why can’t we hear it?
If the world is truly crumbling, truly crying
Why can’t we see or hear it?
It’s not that we can’t, it’s that we won’t.
We choose not to see, not to listen.
We convince ourselves they’ll save it
That they’ll restore what they we have lost
We put our trust in they
Because we can’t carry the weight
Because we won’t carry the weight
Who’s this “they” that we trust so much?
This “they” that will save the Earth?
The truth is “they” doesn’t exist
There is no “they” coming to save us
To take the weight we don’t want to carry
Our fate, our future
Rests in our hands
But we refuse to carry the weight
The Earth is dying
There’s everything we can do
Everyone knows that
Don’t they?
Poster showcasing winning entries for 2023 International YAAS Competition.
Red Rock High School Career Fair
Three Red Rock High School senior students stopped by the Sedona Sister Cities Booth (run by Carol Myers and Linda Petty) to learn about the YAAS Competition at the Spring Career Fair sponsored by the Rotary Club of VOC.
