From left, Asher P. Reyel, Lindsay Bocago, Hannah Ramos, Jesus Villagomez, Alexander Salundaguit and Kiano Arriola.
From left, Daneil Taisakan, Princess Debengek, Bernice Feolino, Rianna Barcinas, Jessiana Tenorio, and Yu Rong Jiang.
THIS year’s Valentine N. Sengebau Poetry Contest, hosted by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, was held Friday, Oct. 11 at American Memorial Park’s indoor theater.
Saipan Community School 7th grader Jesus Villagomez topped the junior division while Mount Carmel School’s Jessiana Tenorio and Dr. Rita Hocog Inos Junior-Senior High School’s duo act Bernice Feolino and Rianna Barcinas tied for first place in the senior division.
The competition is held every October as part of the Humanities Month celebration. It honors Valentine Sengebau, a Palauan poet who lived on Saipan and composed dozens of poems published by the Micronesian Reporter and Marianas Variety during the Trust Territory era.
Junior division students were required to memorize and recite poems from Sengebau’s anthology, “Microchild,” as well as explain why they selected the piece.
In the senior division, high school students created original poetry and performed them on stage.
Because Sengebau’s work sometimes centered on cultural identity, competitors in the senior division were tasked with creating original work related to culture, identity or change in the CNMI.
Junior division competitors recited poems from “Microchild’s” Cultural Identity, Politics, or Images sections.
Feolino and Barcinas recited a poem titled “Echoes of our Souls,” which is about cultural loss.
They told Variety that for the past two to three weeks, they took many opportunities to practice the poem, including rehearsing during passing conversations or between classes at RHI.
“Since I am Chamorro and I do feel like I am not as consumed by my culture as I wish I was, I was kind of putting it out there that although we can do better and I can do more, I don’t,” Barcinas said. “But coming from a small community like the CNMI, a lot of knowledge about our language is not put out there and there’s so many interpretations of it. So now we try to put that into words of how it felt for us, the youth, to be deprived of it.”
For her part, Feolino, who is from the Philippines, said she was able to see the Chamorro culture at a distance.
“I just recently moved here and coming from a country that was really loud and proud about their culture, when I came here I was kind of culture shocked because it was kind of washed away,” she said. “Even though I’m not Chamorro, I think this was a really good experience to see local culture and learn about it from a different view.”
For her part, Tenorio recited her work, “Tåya Chamorro,” which addresses cultural loss, but is still optimistic about cultural identity.
“Growing up I never had a very strong Chamorro background,” Tenorio said. “I’ve lived on this island my whole entire life, but I’ve never felt connected to my roots. As I was growing up I realized it was not just the language or these big family parties. Just the strength of my family alone and everything that I’ve had made in my life is part of my culture. I stand very firmly in who I am today and I’m very proud.”
In the senior division, second place went to Daniel Taisakan and Princess Debengek of Da’ok Academy. It was Da’ok Academy’s first venture into the competition. Third place went to Saipan Southern High School’s Yu Rong Jiang.
For his part, Villagomez said he was surprised to win first prize in the junior division.
Although Villagomez has experience with regional speech and debate competitions, he said he mostly competes in the prose categories. This was his first poetry competition, and he practiced for hours to prepare, he said.
Second prize went to Kiano Arriola and Alexander Salundaguit of Hopwood Middle School, who tied with fellow duo act Lindsay Bocago and Hannah Ramos of Francisco M. Sablan Middle School.
Finishing third was RHI’s Asher Reyel.
Rianna Barcinas, left, and Bernice Feolino on stage.
Daneil Taisakan, right, and Princess Debengek perform the original work, “Who Are We?” The pair, from Da’ok Academy, took second place in the competition. It is Da’ok Academy’s first entry in the competition.
Mount Carmel Student Jessiana Tenorio tied for first place in the senior division.
Kiano Arriola, right, and Alexander Salundaguit perform “Searching” at the Valetine N. Sengebau Poetry Competition.
Lindsay Bocago and Hannah Ramos perform “The Task.”
