PHILIPSBURG:--- Jenice Forbes, a student at St. Maarten Academy, became the first ever Soualigan Fyah Supreme Poet on Friday, March 15, after the competition's final event.
Forbes competed against Andrew Peterson, who took 1st place, Atul Pereppadan, who placed 2nd, and her twin Janice Forbes, who took 3rd place. Forbes' won both of the two rounds with her poems entitled "Let me be" and "Your Life". The three runners up all received two books donated by House of Nehesi Publishers and the grand prize winner will be traveling to Tortola to perform at the annual Microphone Messenjah scheduled for October 2013.
Soualigan Fyah, which is a poetry and spoken word competition for teenagers, was organized by Lysanne Charles of 5 square miles productions, in collaboration with Clara Reyes of Imbali Center for Creative Movement. The event ran for five consecutive Fridays between February 15 and March 15 and ended with the final competition between the four youngsters.
Charles said that while the lead up Fridays before the finals had been met with some challenges, including not being able to reach the anticipated number of teenagers, but it had all been worth it in the end.
"Soualigan Fyah was really created as a vehicle to give young St. Maarten poets a chance to express themselves in front of both their peers and veteran, local poets. The competition component was added in order allow them to bring their A games from the inception. Initially I had thought more teens would come out, so that was a little frustrating, but I think things turned out just how they had to and these four young people and the guests poets who read for the finals demonstrated that there is indeed a need for events such as these, so definitely there is more to come," Charles said.
Charles said that as a result of the competition and at the request of some of the older poets such as Somalia 'Sumaiyyah Tha Poet' Peterson, Stephan 'Stretch' Rodney, and Rene Violenus she is working towards establishing a monthly open mic evening for the teenage poets and spoken word artists on the islands. These opening mic sessions will also allow the young poets to interact with veteran poets and more importantly allow them to continue developing their forms of poetry and spoken word, building on different artistic genres.
"We're excited. This is just the start of things to come. For our open mic evenings we are definitely going to continue reaching out to young people from across the island and encouraging them to come and step up to the mic. The Soualigan Fyah Poetry and Spoken Word Competition for Teens is definitely going to be an annual thing and something I look forward to seeing grow in the years to come," Charles said.
She said that she especially wanted to thank the four youngsters who had participated in the finals and also House of Nehesi Publishers for believing in the next generation of St. Maarten poets and donating the six books which were given out as prizes. She encourages all teenage poets to like Soualigan Fyah's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/SoualiganFyah in order to stay up to date with upcoming events.
