BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WITH a total of 115 points, 10-year-old Treasure Cannonier of the Joshua Obadiah Primary School (formerly Molineux Primary) last night 10 (Nov.14) emerged winner of a poetry competition final, which was organised by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with FINCO.
The competition was held at the Zion Moravian Church on Victoria Road and in attendance were parents, teachers and also students who were there to cheer on the representatives of their respective schools.
Second place winner was George Moody Stuart Primary School, represented by 10-year-old Daria James, who scored 112 points, while nine-year-old Kinaja Pole of the Beach Allen Primary came third with 104 points.
The other competitors were 11–year-olds J’Niah Prentice of Estridge Primary School and Michael Sutton of Tyrell Williams Primary School and Tatyana Browne of the St. Paul’s Primary School.
The two-round competition had seen each student performing a seen piece called ‘Peacemaker’ and an unseen one entitled ‘Go Ahead But Remember’.
The order of contestant was randomly selected with a number draw method using first to sixth positions.
The first poem was written by Drama Coordinator Moses Byron and the latter was from Dr. Ken Ballentyne’s book of poems called ‘Rhythms of the Ghetto’.
Dr. Ballentyne remarked that he was very pleased with how the children handled the piece.
In giving a summary of the poems content, he highlighted that it was a difficult piece, and, according to him, it is about a mother charging her wayward daughter who didn’t go to school and was following bad company which resulted in the mother scolding her.
The moral of the poem was that one should be careful with the things one does in life because those things might come back to haunt one.
‘Peacemaker’ addressed a bullying situation. The reader played the victim who refused to use violence against the ill-treating interferer but, rather, won the respect of the bully through kindness and tolerance.
Dr. Ballentyne revealed that the poem was also meant “to give students a sense of what exactly parents have to go through”.
Additionally, he shared that he has a poem which speaks to wayward boys called ‘Enough Is Enough’.
Drama teacher Vincia Mathew said the competition was fair and to the point.
“I’m glad we got the experience so we know exactly what we’re coming up against next year”, she said.
Commenting on how practice sessions went leading up to the competition, Mathew said they were good and tiresome “but she got it”.
The Drama teacher expressed that children who are involved in poetry reading and dramatisation are being provided the opportunity to perform, and this is an avenue for these youths to express themselves; putting them in the writer’s position and be creative with it.
When asked for her opinion on her winning performance, Cannonier replied, “I did great.” She said that she enjoys reading poetry and when asked what she likes about poems, smilingly responded, “It sounds better than reading fairy tales.”
This media house was informed that the Principal of the school, Joycelyn Mitchum, and Suzette Cannonier - the winner’s aunt who is also a teacher at the school, were also instrumental in preparing Cannonier for the competition.
The event was moderated by the Director in the Department of Youth, Geoffrey Hanley.
Hanley did an impromptu random number selection which placed teachers ‘on the spot’. As a result, Ms. Caines and Ms. O’Loughlin of the St. Paul’s Primary and Estridge Primary were picked to perform the poems ‘Go Ahead But Remember’ and ‘Peacemaker’ respectively.
The children were amused seeing the teachers dramatise the pieces.
The judges of the competition were Dr. Michael Blake, Dr. Ken Ballentyne and Gene Knight. And included in the judging criteria were Physical Presence, Appropriateness, Evidence of Understanding and Performance.
Knight pinpointed that, generally, the performances were entertaining and that the students were well-prepared. He declared that the intonation of the students was also good.
He however warned the students about losing visibility of the audience and the throw of voice, while speaking specifically to the instances when some students had to fall to the ground while dramatising. He also made mention to over dramatisation as an area for attention to be paid.
The competition was held as part of drama week (Nov.11-16) under the theme ‘Using Drama To Sensitize Youth to Social Ill’. The week of activities climaxes today (Friday) with a drama event, featuring primary school students in the Independence Square.
