Thirteen youth poet laureate finalists to perform Saturday

Thirteen finalists for youth poet laureate will perform Saturday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center before the announcement of the selection of the state’s second youth poet laureate.

The event, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Castle Theater, will be streamed for free on the center’s website and Facebook and YouTube pages.

The youth poet laureate finalists range in age from 10 to 19.

The event will include appearances and performances by special guests including Lua Bowman, Hawaii’s first youth poet laureate.

For the event, the Maui Arts & Cultural Center collaborated with Urban Word, a youth literary arts and youth development organization that initiated the National Youth Poet Laureate Program.

The program identifies young poets who exhibit a commitment to artistic excellence, civic engagement, youth leadership and social justice, according to a center news release.

“As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic offered unique challenges to our adolescents and this program served as a space to not only wrestle with the difficulties, but to reimagine and hope for a new creative future, one where we take our best and our worst and thoughtfully move forward,” said Moira Pirsch, MACC education director. “In the second year of this program, we saw more interest with more students participating and most importantly, more stories amplified to be shared virtually and live in theaters and classrooms statewide.”

Other special guests for the event, offering performances and some mentoring messages to the finalists, are Meera Dasgupta, former U.S. youth poet laureate; Sara Tekula, director of programs and communications of The Merwin Conservancy; Terisa Siagatonu, award-winning poet, teaching artist, mental health educator and community leader from the Bay Area; and Michael Cirelli, executive director of Urban Word and the founder the National Youth Poet Laureate Program.

Event emcees are Travis Kaulula‘au Thompson and Ittai Wong.