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Maui student wins $1,000 grand prize in international arts showcase

By Staff | Oct 22, 2021

WAILUKU — The Maui County Sister Cities Foundation announced the slate of winners from its local youth art contest, including Maui entrant Skylar Kuroda, who won the $1,000 grand prize in the Poets Showcase in the Sister Cities International Young Artists and Authors Showcase 2021.

The global showcase was open to youth artists, photographers, authors and musicians whose works underscored this year’s theme of “United in Hope.”

The showcase attracted hundreds of entrants from around the world and was designed to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation — one individual, one community at a time.

Kuroda’s entry is a poem titled “Allied through Adversity.”

“During any difficult time, especially now with the global pandemic, people are forced to adapt their daily lives and become accustomed to a new routine and lifestyle,” she noted.

“In my poem, I chose to focus on how individuals from many different backgrounds and of various origins have come together in this stressful and uncertain time. Specifically, I did this by incorporating characteristics and sights that are unique to certain places and highlighting personal observations that I have noticed in the past year.”

Here is an excerpt from “Allied through Adversity”:

Across our expansive world

People, of diverse genders and ages, races and dreams, band together

From small island villages nestled under a creamy, cerulean sky

To the largest cities, bustling with energy

Bombarded by an overwhelming, thought-consuming fear Brought forth by invisible organisms

Attacking our physical being

Weakening bodies, while our minds strengthen Disregarding differences,

Welcoming new ideas,

Tearing apart the strict mental routine that used to confine us,

And relinquishing comfortable habits

To the unpredictable unknown.

Maui contest winners, who all went on to compete at the international level, are:

POETRY: Skylar Kuroda (Seabury Hall), “Allied through Adversity,” first place; Liviana Wilson (Seabury Hall School), “The Need for Tranquility,” second place; Sophia Preiser (Seabury Hall School), “Linda,” third place;

FINE ART: Ragni Zecena Escobar (Maui Waena/Maui High School), “Waterfall,” first place; Mico Corpuz (Lahainaluna High School), Untitled, second place;

PHOTOGRAPHY: Ava Notarangelo, Untitled, first place;

MUSIC: Noah Haas, “Spread Your Love,” first place; Ezra Tolbert (Lahainaluna High School), “Roads,” second place.

To view the Maui contest winners’ visual works, visit the Maui County Sister Cities Foundation Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mauisistercities.

Musical entries will be added at a later date. For her international-level grand prize, poetry winner Kuroda received $1,000. Her essay is also featured on the Sister Cities International website, at https://sistercities.org/2021-yaas/yaas-winners/.

Maui winners received gift cards from the Maui County Sister Cities Foundation. First place winners received $100; second place winners received $50 and third place winners received $25.

The Maui County Sister Cities Foundation (MCSCF) is a nonprofit supporting Maui County’s 24 Sister and Friendship Cities and one Sister Chamber. MCSCF fosters cultural, economic and educational partnerships to promote world peace and mutual understanding.

For more information, call (808) 242-6762.