Jiang, Lang top Sengebau Poetry Competition

Yu Rong Jiang and Giana Lang topped their respective divisions of the 20th Annual Sengebau Poetry Competition at the American Memorial Park Visitor’s Center last Friday night.

Twenty middle and high school students took to the stage to recite Valentine N. Sengebau’s poems and their own original poems.

Jiang from Saipan Southern High School won the Senior Division after reciting her original poem, “Reminders of Home.” Second place was Kagman High School’s Fanai Staffler with her poem “Can You Weave?” and third place was Dr. Rita H. Inos High School’s duo of Ashley Cayabyab and Sayera Sidur with their poem “The Pacific’s Lush Paradise.”

Jiang, who is a freshman, shared that the inspiration for her original poem was about growing up in the CNMI since 2013 as an immigrant from China.

“I was thinking about what or how this island makes me feel like I belong here. Obviously, I’m not a Pacific Islander… So, as I was growing up, I actually came into contact with more Pacific Islanders than my own people. This whole poem is actually inspired by my childhood process—my growth. Like what I said in my poem—the food, they’re local here and I barely mentioned mine because I’m in Micronesia. I adapted and adopted this culture,” Jiang said of her poem’s inspiration.

Jiang also won the Junior Division in last year’s competition after reciting Sengebau’s poem, “Searching.”

Lang, from DanDan Middle School, topped the Junior Division with the poem “Ngedeloch.”

There was a bit of a mix up with winners—as originally, Lang was said to be second place instead of first place, but it was cleared up later. Second place went to DMS’ Mary Audrey Bansil with the poem “Ngak” and third place was Francisco M. Sablan Middle School’s Kalie Ann Kalen with the poem “Mirage.”

On how she felt about the mix up, 13-year-old Lang thought she didn’t win at all. She said, “I was really happy when they said that I won second and when they said they had made a mistake, I had a moment of like ‘oh no, maybe I didn’t win anything at all,’ but then they called me as first place, and I was really surprised, happy, and grateful.”

She then thanked her coaches Simon Necesito and Deana Villagomez.

First place winners received $300, second place received $200, and third place won $150.

The competition is an annual event hosted by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council. Executive director Leo Pangelinan said of the performers after the event, “Jiang was first place in the junior division last year, and now she came in with an original poetry. I mean, that’s just what we want to have, really, with our middle school students is they build up that courage and they explore their own authentic voice through poetry. That’s an example of someone doing that, so we’re really happy about that.”

He added, “Something interesting that happened that I’ve never seen in this poetry competition before was Zared Nekaifes’ thing with the electric guitar. I mean, we didn’t know he was going to do that, but it was a nice surprise and a nice contribution to his piece that really complimented it. So, I think if people catch wind of that, we’ll be seeing more and more creativity around using different tools, different digital tools or audio to complement their performance on stage.”

Senior Division competitors are judged on two categories: content material of their original poem and recital. Competitors in the Junior Division recite poems composed by Sengebau that were published in a 2004 anthology, titled “Microchild.”

The competition aims to promote an appreciation for poetry that captures expressions of the CNMI’s diverse experiences and values as they relate to culture, identity, and change. This event hopes to strengthen the contestants’ literacy and oratory skills.

The competition is open to all middle school and high school students and is held annually in October, CNMI Humanities Month.