Beyond Kultura’s poetry winners. From left: Denny Mo, Paula Lovell, Chloe Ifrah, Grace Cheasley, Laura Richardson, Walter Hellebrand, and Loekie Morales. Absent: Nicholas Russo.
Since 2003, the Beyond Kultura Events foundation (BKE) has been promoting storytelling, story writing and reading amongst the youth and adults. As part of its Writing of Hurricane Experiences project, BKE called on all children and adults of Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten/Saint Martin and Anguilla to participate in a writing competition.
The poem needed to be about their experiences with the passing of hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Some 36 poems in total were submitted and the five top grades were selected by a team of experts from St. Maarten and The Netherlands.
"Hurricane Poem" by Laura Richardson (adult) won first place, with a total of 26 points.
Three poems tied for second place with 24 points: “Ice Is Nice” by Laura Richardson, “Senses Overload” by Walter Hellebrand (adult) and “Distraction” by Grace Cheasley (13) of Caribbean International Academy (CIA).
“After the eye” landed in third place, with a total of 23 points. The haiku was written by Chloe Ifrah (18), also a student at CIA.
Fourth place, with 22 points, was also split between three poems: “A Moment of Dismay” by Denny Mo (11) and “Hurricane” by Paula Lovell (13) – both of St. Joseph Primary School, and “Recalling Irma”, by Nicholas Russo (11) of St. Maarten Montessori School.
“Becoming to Be” by Loekie Morales (adult), with 21 points, earned fifth place.
The judging panel consisted of poets, authors, and a fervent reader – a librarian. For the sake of objectivity and to avoid the possibility of favouritism, judges were only given the authors’ pseudonyms.
They graded each poem on different criteria, such as form, style, rhyme, rhythm, poetic devices, comprehension, coherence, mood, imagery, word selection, scope, significance, line endings and breaks, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and content. They also looked at whether the poems realised their intentions.
This past Wednesday, the winners met and read their winning poems to invited guests with Laura Richardson, at the Roland Richardson Gallery Museum in Marigot. They also discussed how they conceptualised their poems. Hellebrand, from Statia, came to St. Maarten to celebrate and share at the special meeting. Nicholas Russo could not make the event, but was represented by a mentor.
Fabian Badejo, who had served as a judge for the contest, explained more about the judging process, and emphasised the importance of writing the experiences of the passing of impactful hurricanes.
Beyond Kultura will be sharing the winning poems with this newspaper, and winning authors will also be invited to accompany BKE President Loekie Morales on radio programmes, where their poems can be read to the general public.
BKE also plans to publish a hurricane story book this year, which can include these poems in addition to the main story, once there is consent by the authors or their guardians. If the book is published, the winning poets will receive two copies.
Morales extended warm congratulations to all of the winners.
