Trinity City Blog: Meet the Future (Part 6)

In this series, we sit down with teen readers and artists to learn more about what connects them to the comic.

This week we meet Emma Lapene, one of our two winners of the first ever Trinity City Teen Artivist Contest!

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At the end of 2023, Trinity City Arts held our first Trinity City Teen Artivist Contest. Our contest challenged participants to read Issue #1 of Trinity City and write a piece inspired by disability justice, climate justice, or community safety (the themes of social change featured in TC). Out of many incredible entries, we had two winners! This week, we meet Emma Lapene, author of winning poem "Who We Are."

Emma, born and raised in Louisiana, is a sophomore at Mount Carmel Academy. Emma plays guitar and flute, and especially loves writing fiction and poetry.

Emma's poem "Who We Are" addresses disability justice. "I really like making characters who are similar to me, so I can

express myself through them," Emma said. "A lot of my characters have mental disabilities—ADHD, anxiety, things like that—and I wrote them not only to express myself, but also to let future readers know that they're not alone if they've dealt with similar things."

As a reader of Trinity City Comics (Emma's favorite character is Blake) and as someone who's been writing since ten years old, entering the contest was a no-brainer for Emma. "Writing is something I've always just done by myself," Emma told us. "Even if I didn't win, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to actually talk to another writer."

From the TC team, Mat Schwarzman (co-director), Michele Brierre (community champion), and Keith Singleton (TC artist) visited Mount Carmel Academy to present Emma and Vivian with their awards! Both Emma and Vivian Bravo (who we'll meet next!) were awarded a $50 cash card, a one-hour mentoring session, and a free virtual illustration class and writing class taught by Trinity City Artists.

Thank you, Emma, for sharing your work with us. We can't wait to see what you do next!

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Stay tuned for our next Meet the Future, and thank you to all who entered our first contest!