Don't Argue With Benjamin Sprung-Keyser—He's the Champ

Benjamin Sprung-Keyser, 16, of North Hollywood, likes to write, and he likes to debate.

The Harvard Westlake School senior has already been named the national champion in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the National Forensics League National Tournament. And now, he’s part of the ART.WRITE.NOW program and a hometown winner as part of a national competition.

He’s one of four Los Angeles area winners showing their various forms of art in a traveling exhibition now at the Lineage Dance Performing Arts Center in Pasadena, at 89 S. Fair Oaks Ave. The exhibition is open until June 7. (You can witness his skills in the video by clicking underneath his photo above.)

He has written a play about bullying, and enjoys being part of the school debate team. With this latest award he joins a prestigious list of legendary alums, including John Baldessari, Sylvia Plath, John Lithgow, Truman Capote, Robert Redford and Andy Warhol.

ART.WRITE.NOW (artandwriting.org/artwritenow) was formed to honor creative teens in grades seven to 12 with exceptional artistic and literary talent. It has been around since 1923, and handed out more than $25 million in cash awards and college scholarships. The awards are the country’s oldest and most respected recognition program for creative teens.

Benjamin's work entered the competition last year, which included 185,000 entries in 29 categories including poetry, humor, journalism, novel writing and science fiction as well as painting, sculpture, photography, fashion design, film and animation, and video game design. Works were judged on originality, technical skill and the emergence of personal vision or voice. 

Benjamin plans to attend the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City in early June, honoring Southern California-based conceptual artist John Baldessari.

Click through the attached photos of the student’s work at the local exhibit, and see the video of Benjamin above, also read his work under the PDF.

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