The legislative season saw successes for minimum wage and affordable housing, while other initiatives were tabled for next time. Amid the hot button topics, a quiet resolution arose: a call for a yearly state poet laureate.
"I feel like the resolution itself sounds like poetry to me, talking about the importance of art and storytelling, and the different, diverse cultures and voices that we have here in Hawaiʻi," said Aiko Yamashiro, director for the Hawaiʻi Council for Humanities.
The council is one of three organizations called upon to establish the new program. The Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System are co-collaborators.
"We're trying to establish a program to really activate lots of poets, not just honor one fabulous one — which we want to do — but also activate lots of people writing, and sharing and reading," she told The Conversation.
"Less of the idea that there is this one very fancy poet who's going to go around and do readings, and talk about how wonderful they are. But rather one wonderful fancy poet who has demonstrated commitment to teaching, to community, to this place over years," Yamashiro said.
That “very fancy” poet already has company. Last weekend, the Maui Arts & Cultural Center named 18-year-old Kalehua Fung as its 2022 Hawaiʻi Youth Poet Laureate.
She’s the second person to hold the title, earning the honor with her poem “Ode to Messes." Fung read her poem, inspired by Queen Liliʻuokalani, live on The Conversation.
Here's an excerpt:
"Our Queen, Lili’uokalani.
Held prisoner in her room.
As resplendent & efficacious as she was,
She too was held amongst a mess.
Used her tears as thread,
Her sorrow as fabric,
And sewed together the most alluring creation our eyes have ever seen."
Fung, a recent graduate of O‘ahu’s Halau Ku Mana New Century Public Charter School, caught the poetry bug in the eighth grade.
"My favorite poetry has beautiful imagery, and it just places you into the scene so that you can close your eyes and imagine that you're there," Fung said. "If you just write out what you're thinking, there's no rules for poetry. There are no set boundaries of what's good and what's not. That's what's so great about it. It's just an outlet for you to feel things and for you to process."
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 4, 2022. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
