Kai DaProza '26 represents Maui Prep at state Poetry Out Loud competition

Kai DaProza ‘26 represented Maui Prep at the 20th Annual Poetry Out Loud Competition at the Tenney Theatre in Honolulu. DaProza was selected after a Middle and Upper school competition where Maui Prep students selected, analyzed and memorized poems taken from the Poetry Out Loud database. After performing in their respectiveEnglish/Language Arts/Literature classes, two students were selected to advance to the school finals during the regular Friday Citizens’ Assembly. The judges selected Kai to advance to the state finals. 

Students representing 11 Hawaii schools competed in the state finals, reciting three poems in front of an audience and a panel of judges.

DaProza performed “Ways of Talking” by Ha Jin Poem; “The Wish, By a Young Lady” by Laetitia Pilkington Poem; and “We Lived Happily During the War” by Ilya Kaminsky.

In her introduction at the state competition, DaProza was asked to identify one skill she would wish to master. DaProza mentioned the guitar, saying “I strongly believe that music is one of the most powerful forms of expression for both the creator and audience, for that reason I wish I could write and produce my own music.”