Free poetry readings, workshops offered to students and teachers

Hawaiʻi Youth Poet Laureate Miya Peterson, along with college instructors, will be conducting a variety of free poetry readings and workshops for students and teachers at Maui Community College in October.

“The goal is to foster resilience and well-being through creativity,” said Moira Pirsch, education director of the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. “It recognizes the importance of self-expression and social and cultural awareness.”

Miya Peterson will share new poems from her past few months as being the Youth Poet Laureate for the state. On Oct. 18, a “Celebrate Reading” event, including five 40-minute workshops for high school students about poetry and poetry writing will take place at the college from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The workshops are organized by the UH Maui College’s English Department and the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Youth Poet Laureate Program.

There also will be poetry writing workshops for all school-age students organized by International Peace Poem Project, organizers of the annual statewide Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Poetry Contest. The students’ poems, created during the workshop, will be automatically entered into the Dr. King poetry contest for 2025.

“Asking students to write a poem about peace helps to promote an atmosphere of nonviolence and honors the legacy of civil rights leader Dr. King,” said Pirsch about the significance of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Poetry Contest.

The deadline for submission for Maui Poet Laureate entries is Feb. 7, 2025. Information about entries, including forms for submission, may be obtained by going to mauiartseducation.org/youth-poet-laureate.

On Oct. 19, a professional development workshop “The Poetry of Life,” organized by UH Maui College will take place for teachers wishing to support teacher’s wellbeing and their teaching skills about poetry and social emotional learning in the classroom. Organizers and poets of the Dr. King poetry contest, who receive more than 1,000 entries yearly, will be presenting various instructional techniques to teachers to encourage students to write poems.

As an option, the Oct. 19 workshops can accommodate teachers seeking to acquire professional credits through teacher salaried step-credits. The workshop is free to take. If teachers want credit, there is a cost associated.

For more information to reserve a place at Celebrate Reading, contact Morgan Andaluz at andaluz@hawaii.edu or poem@peacepoem.org. For information about step-credits for teachers, register at www.mauiartseducation.org/pd or email education@mauiarts.org.

The events are supported with grants from the Maui County Office of Economic Development, Maui United Way, Bendon Family Foundation, University of Hawaiʻi Foundation, DOE Maui District Office, Mokulele Airlines and Maui Friends of the Library.

For more information about the Maui Youth Poet Laureate program, send queries to
education@mauiarts.org. For more information about the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Poetry Contest, email peacepoem@maui.org.