Keaau Middle School seventh-grade student Zhiyan Guo has been awarded the Hawaii Island Grand Prize in the 23rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Poetry Awards.
Hawaii First Lady Dawn Ige, state Sen. President Kouchi and Mayor Mitch Roth delivered congratulatory speeches, and winners recited their poems on an edited video program to be available for viewing on Vimeo this summer.
Guo’s poem was selected from a field of more than 125 entries.
“We are delighted to receive work of this caliber from this young Hawaii Island poet,” said awards coordinator Melinda Gohn.
The annual competition, sponsored by the Maui-based International Peace Poem Project, is to honor Dr. King, the civil rights leader who promoted nonviolent means to achieve social justice and equality.
Guo received a grand prize certificate from Gov. David Ige and a portrait of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing donated by Maui Artist Davo.
Four Hawaii Island schools also participated. Golden Circle winners received certificates from Ige. Eighteen winning students received certificates as finalists from Hawaii Mayor Roth and a limited edition commemorative poster featuring the double-hulled sailing canoe Hokule‘a.
Gohn said Guo’s winning peace poem, “Fragments of Human Memory,” is a contemporary free-verse poem blending immediacy with imagery to describe the longing for peace in mankind contrasted with today’s conflict with Ukraine.
Michael Dillon Gonsalves, from Honokaa High &Intermediate School, was announced as the contest Grand Finalist. Sandra Yoshikawa from Konawaena Elementary School was named as the Dr. King Teacher of the Year.
The project accepts poetry entries from students for the Dr. King peace poem contest during Black History Month in February. To enter in 2023, please contact Gohn at poem@maui.net.
For more information, visit peacepoem.org.