Giana Lang holds the plaque she received for winning first prize in poetry recital at the 20th Sengebau Poetry Competition.
Saipan Southern High School’s Yu Rong Jiang, center, won the 20th Sengebau Poetry Competition with her original poem, “Reminders of Home.”
GIANA Lang of Dandan Middle School, and Yu Rong Jiang from Saipan Southern High School, topped their respective divisions at the Northern Marianas Humanities Council’s 20th Annual Sengebau Poetry Competition on Oct. 20 at American Memorial Park’s Visitor Center Theater.
The annual competition honors Valentine “Val” N. Sengebau, the Palauan poet who spent the final quarter-century of his life on his adopted home island of Saipan during the Trust Territory era. He was a regular contributor to Marianas Variety.
In the middle school division of the competition, the contestants must recite poetry from Sengebau’s book of poems, “Micro Child.”
Lang won the competition after reciting Sengebau’s poem “Ngedeloch.”
Second place in the middle school division went to Mary Bansil, also of DMS, while third place was awarded to Kalie Ann Kalen of Francisco M. Sablan Middle School.
In the high school competition, contestants wrote an original poem, which they would then perform.
The poem’s content was judged prior to the student performing it at the 20th Sengebau Poetry Competition. The student’s performance was then scored on the night of the competition and added to the content score at the competition’s end.
Jiang’s “Reminders of Home” was the judge’s top pick, with Fanai Staffler’s “Can You Weave” coming in second, and Ashley Cayabyab and Sayer Sidur’s duo performance of “The Pacific’s Lush Paradise” in third.
Staffler is a student of Kagman High School while Cayabyab and Sidur are from Dr. Rita Hocog Inos Jr./Sr. High School.
First place winners of both divisions received $300, with $200 going to second place, and $150 going to third place.
