The Maui News

The Maui Arts & Cultural Center presents Hawai’i’s third youth poet laureate presentations on Friday to be livestreamed from the MACC’s Castle Theater beginning at 10 a.m. on the MACC’s website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The event will include performances by the five Hawai’i youth poet finalists, who are all from Oahu, appearances and performances by several special guests, the four National Youth Poet Laureate finalists and culminating in the announcement of the young poet selected to be the state’s third youth poet laureate.

This event again marks a special local-national partnership between the MACC and Urban Word, a news release said.

Founded in 2008 by Urban Word, the National Youth Poet Laureate Program identifies and celebrates teen poets who exhibit a commitment to artistic excellence, civic engagement, youth leadership and social justice. The live event will take place before an invited audience of Maui students in the MACC’s Castle Theater.

The MACC’s Education Department has spent the past several months working with dozens of teachers and over 1,000 students statewide to encourage and prepare them for this opportunity. Finalist participants in this program range in age from ten to nineteen, said MACC Education Director Moira Pirsch.

Maui had one student who made the top 10, Malia Cole of Carden Academy and receiving an honorable mention was Makaela Cooper of Seabury Hall.

The program is funded by the County of Maui, Office of Economic Development, a grant from the Hawai’i Council for the Humanities, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.