The winners of the 2022 Sengebau Poetry Competition: Kagman High School students D’anahlei Rodriguez and Juneya Quitano pose for a photo with their teacher Loremel Hocog and judges.
MIDDLE and high school poets can win up to $300 in the upcoming Northern Marianas Humanities Council’s 20th Sengebau Poetry Competition.
According to Leeani Villagomez, Humanities Council program coordinator, the deadline to register is Friday, Oct. 6 at 3 p.m.
The competition is set for Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. at the American Memorial Park Visitor Center Theater.
Villagomez said principals of public and private middle and high schools on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota have received copies of the competition rules and regulations.
Parents of interested participants are invited to speak to their child’s teacher, principal, or other school representative in order for their child to participate.
Travel costs of students and their chaperones from Tinian and Rota are covered by grant funds of the Humanities Council.
In a media release, the Humanities Council said the competition is an annual event that features poetry recited by middle and high school students. The competition honors the late Valentine “Val” N. Sengebau, the Palauan “poet in residence” who spent the final quarter-century of his life on his adopted home island of Saipan during the Trust Territory era.
Sengebau’s poetry explored the loss of cultural identity in the face of rapid westernization; the political status negotiations then underway between the various Micronesian island groups and the U.S. government; and the joys and sorrows arising from his own life.
In the middle school division, for contestants in seventh or eighth grades, contestants will be judged on their ability to recite a poem from Sengebau’s original work, “Microchild: An Anthology of Poetry.” Poems must come from the book’s “Cultural Identity, Politics, or Images” section. Contestants will also be judged on their ability to explain why they selected the poem and what they interpret the poem to mean.
In the high school competition, for students in 9th to 12th grades, contestants will write and then perform an original poem. The poem’s content is judged prior to the student performing it at the 20th Sengebau Poetry Competition. The student’s performance is scored separately on the night of the competition, and then added to the content score at the competition’s end.
Content judges for the high school division will examine the poem’s symbolism, metaphor, and imagery. Poems must address themes relating to culture, identity, or change in the CNMI. Poems must be 250 words or less, written in Times New Roman or similar font.
Judges request that author names, grades, school affiliation, email, and phone number appear at the top right corner of the submission. The deadline to submit original poems for the high school competition is Oct. 10 and should be sent to Villagomez at leeani@nmhcouncil.org/.
Scoring rubrics are available upon request.
The official regulations state that each participating school is allowed two performance acts per division. Performance acts can be solo participants or duo participants. A duo act counts as one single entry.
First place prize for both the middle and high school division is $300, second place is $200, third place is $150. Winners’ names will be inscribed on a perpetual trophy housed at the winning school until next year’s competition.
For more information, contact Leeani Villagomez at (670) 235-4785 or leeani@nmhcouncil.org/.
