Oneida County NAACP honors poets laureate in ceremony at MWPAI
A celebration of humanity, language and emotion honored four of Oneida County’s brightest poets.
The NAACP Utica-Oneida County Chapter held a recognition for its poet laureate and youth poet laureate, selected by a panel of community judges, at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute on April 30.
Each participating poet submitted original works connected to the theme of struggle, hope and resilience.
Tinashe Dylan Manguwa was selected as the poet laureate, while Win Naing was selected as youth poet laureate. Roxanne Vasilopoulos and Jasper Sammon were honorable mentions for the poet laureate and youth poet laureate, respectively.
Tinashe Dylan Manguwa
Now a student at Hamilton College, Manguwa traveled from Zimbabwe to South Africa before coming to the United States.
Being named the NAACP Utica-Oneida County Chapter's poet laureate is surreal, Manguwa said, and something he will process along the way.
“I used to be a very selfish writer when I started on,” he said. “I would think what I wrote is perfect, it’s amazing and it’s the greatest thing. But the more I go out and I read more and I interact with other poets – amazing poets, by the way – I realize there’s always room to learn and room to grow for me.”
Manguwa said poetry is an avenue for dealing with the inter- and intrapersonal.
“I think the cool thing about poetry, for me, as I’ve realized over the years, is it’s putting language to everyday experiences,” he said. “And that’s very powerful, because once you can define something, once you can add the language to it and the terms to it, you can then tackle it head-on. You can then acknowledge that it exists and once you’ve acknowledged that it exists, you can do something about it.”
Win Naing
A student at Thomas R. Proctor High School, Naing was born in Thailand and moved to Houston when he was 4 years old. He then moved to Utica a few years later.
Poetry is a recent hobby for Naing, who said he only started writing it just four months ago. The poet laureate ceremony was a more professional and large event than he expected.
“I was actually going through a rough time in the past week, and I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to come here, but I’m glad I did because it kind of goes with the theme of struggle, hope and resilience, that I was able to push myself to come here,” Naing said. “With that, I want to inspire kids that are younger than me to also do that, while taking lessons from ones that are older.”
Naing said his interest in poetry started as an exploration of a potential fun new hobby.
“It’s just been a really great way to express words that I didn’t really know how to express,” he said. “Basically turning one emotion into a whole story.”
Honorable mentions
Vasilopoulos said the ceremony was her first time reading her poetry. She was encouraged by supportive friends to enter and share her experiences.
“I have had a lot of challenges in my life, so sometimes the only way I could process them or grow through whatever I was going through was to write about it,” Vasilopoulos said. “I’m not the most verbal person, speaking-wise, but writing I could do. And so that’s why it really became the way that I expressed myself.”
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Sammon, a Clinton High School student, called the distinction an honor. He said he wants to use his poetry to bring recognition to systemic racial injustice in the country, as with the poem he wrote about the murder of George Floyd.
“I think poetry allows people to express their emotions and their feelings toward a certain subject really well,” Sammon said. “I’m also a musician and I would say the same about music. I think it’s just really easy to express yourself through poetry.”
Recognition and ceremony
The poets laureate each will serve a one-year term. Those honored received an NAACP membership for the year, poetry-related books and will be able to perform at upcoming community events and engage with local high schools and colleges; the winners also received a financial award.
During the ceremony, the poets laureate each read or recited two poems, while the honorable mentions read one.
Manguwa recited his poem “3805” and read “syncopation,” while Naign read “The Wanderer” and “Sand.” Vasilopoulos read “If It Helps” and Sammon read “I Can’t Breathe.”
Steve Howe is the city reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email him at showe@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Oneida County NAACP honors 2022 poets laureate in ceremony at MWPAI
