Wolf and Borja top poetry competition

Junior division winner Jonathan Wolf, right, poses with senior division winner Manuel Borja, left, on Oct. 18, 2016. (Michael T. Santos)

Jonathan Wolf and Manuel Borja won their respective junior and senior divisions of the 13th Annual Valentine Sengebau Poetry Competition held last Tuesday at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center. Both took home the $250 purse for winning first place.

Wolf, from Dandan Middle School, won with his piece titled Rairecharmoracherchar.

When asked about how he feels about winning, Wolf said, “It feels really great! I was actually more nervous about the award ceremony than I was doing my piece. When I heard I was first place, I couldn’t believe it because I really thought that I wasn’t even going to place.”

Inspiration came from his elder brother, due to his experience, and his aunt. She helped transform Wolf and his brother into being thespians, which allowed him to get used to acting and speaking in front of a large crowd.

In regards to previous experiences performing in a poetry competition, Wolf said, “I’m not sure if it was last year or this year, but I went to Salt Lake City and I presented my declamation. I got first place in the entire [country] so I was pretty happy about that too.”

The senior division champion, Manuel Borja, from Kagman High School, won with his piece Mingling With Our Bloodline.

Asked about his inspiration, Borja said, “My inspiration was my school because it’s full of different cultures. I have friends that are Chinese, Korean, and Filipino and they are all very close to me.”

Borja plans to join the poetry competition again next year, with this year being his first time competing as well as speaking in front of a crowd.

When he was asked about how he feels about winning, Wolf said, “I was not expecting to win because I saw a lot of wonderful performances and I thought they would win instead of me.”

Eulalia V. Arriola, program officer of the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, was happy with how the competition turned out.

“Every year, honestly, it amazes me how courageous our students are, at such a young age, to go in front of an audience. I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and every time I go up there [stage] I become so nervous. Then I see the participants and they’re so natural.”

Other winners include Saipan Community School’s Maxine Rabago and Shaina Lee coming in third with their piece The Watcher and Francisco M. Sablan Middle School’s Elisha Posadas and Merari Aniga with their piece Fear finishing second place in the junior division.

For the senior division, Mount Carmel School’s Reica Ramirez won third place with her piece Nostaliga, while Tinian High School Lou Dela Cruz bagged second with her piece Us.

Hosted by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, the competition honors the legacy of Micronesia’s foremost poet, Valentine Sengebau, whose work involved issues such as cultural identity, politics and change in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Sengebau spent the last 25 years of his life in his adopted home of Saipan, composing dozens of poems expressing the personal joys and sorrows of his life and the issues regarding loss of cultural identity on the islands as well as the political negotiations between the United States and Micronesia.

For any more information about events hosted by the council such as the upcoming 25th anniversary on Oct. 28, feel free to contact their office at (670) 235-4786.