"If I see all of these, like, white classical musicians, composers, just writing a bunch of music and we're just always playing that, why can't I just write a piece so that everyone else can play too?" said Sadie Caroll, an ACT-SO cellist participant. "I just had so much fun playing it, and it's great to share my work."

The students' work will be on display at the NAACP hub at the Boston Convention Center July 28-30. The awards ceremony on July 29 is free and open to the public.

Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as many other political and entertainment headliners, are scheduled to speak at the convention.

This year's Olympics will draw participants from across the country. These competitors will be mentored in their selective fields and fight for a medal while being surrounded by supportive but competitive excellence.

"When you show up at an actual competition, a national competition, you're being exposed to other young people who are just as bright, just as talented as you are," said Tanisha Sullivan, the president of NAACP Boston. "You are put into an environment where young people across all of the categories are committed to excellence. And when you're in an environment ... where there is rigor, you can't help ... but level up recognizing that there's a standard and that standard is excellence."

ACT-SO is meant to uplift and applaud Black high school students for their academic and artistic achievements and is a signature event at the NAACP's convention. It's a competition that allows youth to be challenged, and then take those skills learned from the high-intensity environment and continue to develop them.

"This is an opportunity to understand kind of your past and your history and the people that came before you in order to pour into everybody that comes after you," said Janay Trench-Lesley, a former ACT-SO poet participant.

"[Understand] that this is bigger than yourself," Trench-Lesley said. "Kind of just [trust] your process, [trust] your talent and [trust] what you know, because that's how you got here in the first place."

Tanisha Sullivan, president of NAACP Boston

Janay Trench-Lesley, ACT-SO former participant, poet

Sadie Caroll, 2023 ACT-SO participant, cellist