 I'm Rasha Joyner and we are navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is dedicated to exploring the options and choices for the end of life care. But today we're going to venture to Maui for a visit with Melinda Gong, the founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Poem Project. As project organizer, she participates in the Millennial Peace Day at the United Nations in New York in 2000. The annual competition is to honor Dr. King, the civil rights leader who promoted nonviolent means to achieve social justice. The International Peace Poem Project has sponsored the Dr. Martin Luther King Poetry Competition in all four counties of the state for the past 18 years. So much of what we think and do comes from our family narrative, our stories, our history. So much is lost when we do not pass our stories, especially today when everyone has a smartphone and people talk in 140 characters. In many schools throughout the United States from Alaska to Hawaii, we have had teachers take part in the Peace Poem Project. Poetry is a vital language. Poetry depends on the writer's sensations, their history as well as perceptions, so every person has the background needed to write down poems. Because poetry draws from the senses and the senses give deep access to memories as well as feelings, poetry writing is applicable and exciting. Poetry is inked. Our guest today is Melinda Gong. Founder of the Martin Luther King Peace Poem Project, as well as the Maui School Teacher and a dear friend of mine for the last 20 years that we have, I have participated in her project and it is such an honor and a privilege to have Melinda all the way from Maui. Hi. Hello, Marcia and hello, everybody. Thank you for listening to our story. I'm Melinda Gong and I'm coming to you from some of the homes of our supporters here in Maui. I'm up in Kapalua and gosh, I'm so excited to be able to share our message with you. We feel that we have an important part to play in the culture and the recognition of the creativity of children and we want to really help them to believe in themselves as a possible peacemaker in the future, that they themselves have a role to play in their lives and it will reach beyond them and beyond us because we all are hoping for that great central ideal of peace in our lifetime and to have the children ages kindergarten through 12 in every school across this great state, public and private, homeschool and church and everything in between invited to join our contest has brought us a unimaginably rich harvest of poetry that has- I remember- Into a voice of their own. Let me tell the audience that we're doing Skype and I knew it Skype. But I remember the very first year, year 2000 and we had 300 students maybe statewide, something like that. And so he asked the mayor, Mayor Jeremy Harris, if he would acknowledge the students and so he blocked out 15 minutes in his schedule and we had, I don't know how many children show up, mamas and tutus and aunties and cousins and everybody with cameras and the mayor took the time to shake hands with every child to greet, to take pictures and every mayor except the current mayor has done that. Every mayor on every island and they have been wonderful. So we went from what 300 children to nearly 3000 maybe. Well, this year we had over 2,200 students, 2,339 I think joined the contest this year statewide. We ask every teacher in every school to send us poetry in honor of Dr. King. But then what we do is we pick winners from every class. So every student has a good chance of being selected and then we arrange awards assemblies on every island and recognize the children that have won the contest they receive a certificate of honor from the mayor of that county or an official and a prize from our project but every poem wins because every poem goes into our peace poem project. We're creating the world's longest poem so every child is a winner always. Every poem is important. How many poems are in the projects total that over the last 20 years? How many do you have? How many lines of poetry do you have? We are standing roughly at about 186,000 lines of original poetry. Now the world's longest poem is Mahabharabha and it was written in India from 200 BC to 300 BCE and it's approximately 200,000 lines. And it's actually more of a war epic in terms of its poetic content. So we decided we would change world history and create the world's longest poem and every year, every child, every peace poem is treasured. And of course we also have everyone else on earth is invited to participate in our poetic experiment on peace but we are really focusing on the children. They're our hope for the future. Well today we had the award ceremony at the city council for the second place winners. Oahu of course has the most entries so that we did the first place winners a couple of weeks ago and today was for the second place winners just because there are so many. On all the other islands they do them all together. I remember one year, gosh I don't remember ages. Anyway, we had one kid that won when he was in kindergarten he won again first grade, second grade and third grade. Yes. Yes. Same kid but he gets better and better and better every year. Well the other part and I think this is the beauty of our project is it's our job, it's our focus to find and to help young poets because poets are often neglected in our society. They're a small, small segment of our society but their message is huge and so we are really fostering this but quite often we'll have children that will be there several years in a row and we see them returning and so we have found them. And these, the judging in our contest is every year the judges are different and if you know the school or the teacher or anybody in that group you're always asked to take another group. So this is something that is really amazing and it comes across the board. This year's grand prize winner in Maui was a four time winner. She's been to the awards four times and every year she climbed up a little higher. She was chosen as a winner and then she made the golden circle and then she made the grand finalist circle and this year she became grand prize winner for Maui County. So there's this wonderful recognition but we have found these poets and when I see these small, like an eight year old child that's been to our awards more than once or twice that child has talent, that child is real. Today we had one little girl. She was just precious and I would have sworn she was a toddler, she was so tiny but she was so proud and her tutu was so, all the family was just thrilled to death. She is just, I'll send you the picture. She is just tiny, tiny, tiny. I'm gonna ask our control people if I can show the award. Can we get a picture of this? Is this, can we get a picture of this? Is that, is that shown? This is the award and it's absolutely gorgeous. Is that sunrise in Maui? Yes, at Haleakala. At Haleakala, it's gorgeous, just gorgeous. And I want you to know the prizes are all donated by famous artists and photographers. They're just gorgeous, lovely pictures, just lovely prizes. Everything is donated incidentally so we spend the year begging. Yes, we do, yes we do. Yes, and so the people you are staying with to do the Skype, they are donors, are they? Yes, I'm happy and proud to tell you that Manny and Robin are two of our finest supporters and they've supported me and encouraged me and believed in our project over all these many years and we're so fortunate in our support system here on Maui and throughout the islands because we're a small group of people, we could not do this without our volunteer teachers and the volunteer poets here in Maui that help us do the judging. Now this year, for instance, I said we had 2,349 students join the contest. That means we had 2,349 poems to read and to judge and to pick the winners of and so every year I have these fabulous people that come and donate their time. These are teachers, artists, writers, poets themselves, people of very fine caliber, I couldn't pay them but they volunteer their time because they believe in our project and the artists and the donors, they feel too that they are and they are because we could not do this without their help. So it's a grassroots effort in the most profound way. We do not have corporate sponsorship. We occasionally do have people that do help us with grants but those are few and far between and quite frankly it's been several years because the grant money has dried up but people, people that are just like you out there, teachers and laundry men people who have children send me 10, $15, $20 and if you have enough of those people you can do this project. It's crazy. We never have anything left over but somehow we almost have almost enough. It always takes some extra effort on the part of our founders but our supporters like Rand, Robin and Manny and I'm here in their home because they have a Skype and they have the technology for me to be here speaking with you and I'm so grateful. Maui is limited in some ways. Well, we won't tell people because we don't keep it limited. We want to keep the country country. You don't want to look like Honolulu. Now, speaking of the donations and how we, all of us, everybody gives a little piece of whatever it takes to make this happen. I want to shout out to the governor, every governor we've had since we started and all the mayors on all the islands except this last one, but that's a different story. And how they have really given, they do all the certificates, all of the awards, the time, the energy to be a part of this and even last year, when we had on Molokai, what was it, 57 little children whose poetry was in Hawaii? Yes, and this is a landmark. This is a watershed moment for us to, in our work, to be inspiring children to write in their native language. And quite frankly, we have special Hawaiian language awards that we give statewide and we're always, always waiting for Hawaiian poetry to come in, but it's Molokai. And historically, Molokai was considered the richest Hawaiian island because it has the most water. And now, all these many years later, I think in many ways, it's our richest poetry island because it is giving us the water of the Hawaiian language, poetry in Hawaiian. And for me, as a linguist, studyer, and admire poetry all my life, I just think it's so profound that these children are writing in their native tongue. And to hear Hawaiian poetry ringing through our awards ceremonies. Oh, it gives me chicken skin to use a local saying, and it's true, it does. It's a great accomplishment for our project. And we need to go to break and we'll be back in a minute. Thank you. Thank you. You're watching Think Tech Hawaii, which streams live on thinktechhawaii.com, uploads to YouTube, and broadcasts on cable OC16 and O'Lello 54. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. Some say scuba divers are the poor man's astronaut. At Dive Heart, we believe that to be true. We say, forget the moon. Dive Heart can help children, adults, and veterans of all abilities escape gravity right here on Earth. Search diveheart.org and imagine the possibilities in your life. We're back. Today is just one of those magical days when we celebrate young people, little ones, big ones, but young people with young ideas, young poetry. Some of it is so profound, it is hard to believe that it comes from these little people that are just magic. It is magic. There's one young lady that was in middle school when she won the Peace Prize, the Martin Luther King Peace Poem Project Prize. And now she is teaching English in Taiwan. Beautiful, beautiful young lady. So her mother stops me on the street corners and wherever she sees me and she tells me all about her daughter, she is so proud. And she said that that in her resume when she applied for all of these universities, that made quite a difference, the fact that this award, and I've been told that by so many, so many parents and grandparents, how proud they are and what it made a difference, how it made a difference in their lives. Can we get back to Melinda? There she is. Hi. Hi. I know it makes a difference in a life. I've seen so many evidences of that. Now, we have honored personally 300 children, this 350 children this year and last year and the year before. I mean, we've personally honored thousands of students for writing on peace and nonviolence. And I ventured into a restaurant last year after a poetry reading and it was an Asian restaurant and in the customs sometimes the children of the family wait on the table. This young boy, about eight years old, came up to the table to bring us our water. And as it happened, he had been a winner in our awards two years earlier when he was six years old. And he said, wait, Miss, wait. And he ran within three minutes. He was back at my table showing me the prize. He had won at our awards. And I know that he must keep it by his bedside. I mean, he wasn't gone three minutes. And I was so touched knowing these are hardworking people as many Asian people have their own businesses. They live nearby or above. So there he was helping his mother and yet so touched that he would run to show me his prize. I know we helped that child. As you say, the children that get into the colleges because they have our certificates, but I think the day to day seeing the children who win the awards and now I'm an English teacher. And so for me to teach the children poetry and then to have my children selected as winners and believe me, I have nothing to do with the selection. I'm kicked out of the house when the poetry judging goes on, but to see what it does to your own students and to see how, and quite often the ones that are chosen are surprising because poets are surprising. It's not what you'd expect. These are the forgotten ones, the awkward ones, the ones that are shy and suddenly they're a winner. And you can see the difference in their aspect and their courage and their belief in themselves. So I think that our project works in many, many ways. The voice of peace and freedom that Dr. King gave is wonderful that how it continues to impact our children is our future. One of the things I noticed this year, at least here on Oahu, we had a really plethora of religious schools which we had not to had before. It seemed like there was Saint, Saint, Saint, Saint, Saint. All of these, Saint Teresa, Saint Joseph, Saint this, Saint that. And they were beautiful, not religious poems, just beautiful, spiritual from their heart and they were delightful young people, just delightful. And Lutherans were wonderful as well. I agree. I'm so delighted with our growth in the private sector. Unfortunately, we were having phenomenal growth in the public sector. And five years ago, we had the largest poetry entrance in our records. We had over 2,500 students into our contests that year. Unfortunately, the next year, the state adopted a new English program in its curriculum which ties teachers to a certain schedule, leaving them no time to venture outside a subscribed curriculum to do projects within the community. And I have a number of public school teachers who had been with us year after year and I can cite you chapter and verse, but they have said they cannot continue because they cannot do their curriculum. Their principals do not want them doing anything other than what state mandated. And so unfortunately, the public sector has not been growing, but the private schools know and they have no such constraints. And so in those venues, in those schools, in those districts, private schools, and not just religious, some Montessori schools, and in that direction, those schools are all there and a lot of homeschools. This year we had a homeschool student win on Maui. Well, for the first time in our contest history, it's a wonderful thing. But again, we would welcome back all our public school teachers. Some of them have continued with us even though they may have had some problems. They have continued because they believe in our project and they know what it does for the students and how it augments language and creativity and the personal growth. Well, tell me this, you're the expert. When they take out music and poetry and art, doesn't that take away something from the child? Isn't that a part of the whole music, literature, art, aren't they part of the human being? Isn't that, what do we lose when they take that away from the child? Well, we have known for some time, I'm a teacher and I've been well-graded as a teacher. I'm actually licensed to teach two different fields as a public school teacher. But what's been shown is that if children take music, if children paint, if children dance and sing and do an active creative piece, science scores go up, math scores go up. It's been proven over and over again. So this is something that I know just in terms of my training as a teacher. I also know it as an individual because when you get the blues, you have to be shaken out of the blues. If you're sad or you're stuck or you're depressed, you have to do something that makes you happy in order to have the strength to return to the problem. Belief in yourself. So I know after 20 minutes in my classroom, I make the kids stop and stretch and take a deep breath and we start over again because you just need a break. You need to refresh. And the creative side of the brain has been shown over and over again to excite the other side that understands logic, but has to be moved towards logic in a way that is sustainable to the human spirit. Well, now with the new superintendent, do you suppose that we have an opportunity to have her visit with this whole concept of poetry, poetry, music, art, and have it reinstated in the curriculum? We have this whole thing of mindfulness and it's being used in schools across the mainland. How can we, in a place as beautiful as Hawaii, how can we not incorporate all the beauty that poetry and music and art bring? Well, poetry, music, and art are interwoven and here in Maui, it's such a small community, all the poets and the artists and the musicians, we all know each other for the most part because it's a small community and we all work together and have these leaping moments of understanding off each other and that's what the children do. That's what writing and the creative spirit is all about and getting back to Dr. King, that is why he was so successful and one cannot be forgotten because he appealed to the better part of ourselves, that creative part, the belief in the human spirit and poetry and art and music emphasize those parts of the human spirit that continue to grow like a wildflower and may I remind you, wildflowers do not always grow in gardens, they are wild, they are exceptional, they are unlooked for and poetry is exotic, it's like a rare animal, hard to find, hard to keep alive once you find it. So we have to have a campaign, I guess it's what it's called, to make sure that all children, regardless of public or private schools or home schools, that they have this opportunity again because when I was a child we did and that's been, you know, I'm 79 so that's a long time ago, but we had all of that in school and to see it disappear is just sad, it's sad. So we have to not only do another 20 years of poetry, but the really campaign to have all of this back in the school. Yes, and I think perhaps our little winner on Maui said it best this year because her name is Iris Riverstone and coincidentally she's just gotten a scholarship to go to a private school in Oahu. So this has maybe something to do with all her work with our project, she's won three times, but basically she said, I said, why is a Dr. King project important to you, Miss? To you, Iris, and she looked at me and she simply said, because we need poetry, Miss. Thank you, we need poetry. Thank you, Melinda, it's been a pleasure being with you and I like Skype. This is wonderful that we get to talk to people other than those here on Oahu. Thank you for all you've done for the last 20 years and I look forward to another 20 years. Again, thank you so much. Well, you just keep living, Martian, so will I and we will take poetry to the children and again, I want to thank all of my Maui supporters, all my Outer Island supporters. I want to thank Manny Guzman and Robin Reath for making me able to speak with you and for all their help and support and all the help and support of you, Miss Marsha Joyner, over all these years, you've been my spiritual advisor. Your work with Dr. King has made your efforts ring within our community here and abroad and thank you for your help all these many years. Aloha. Aloha.