The Academy of American Poets announced earlier this month that it’s awarding $50,000 grants to designated poet laureates across the nation.

Among the recipients is Kealohapau‘ole Wong, who goes by Kealoha and has served as Hawaii’s first poet laureate for about 10 years. He plans to use the grant money to film a series of poetry workshops with the hope that people will become inspired to share their stories through poetry of their own.

“Hawaiian culture is rich in storytelling,” Kealoha said. “We draw from so many different cultures and so many different ideas and ways of thinking. … Poetry should be shared because we can get so much from each other when we share and when we listen.”

A resolution passed this past legislative session has initiated the selection of a new poet laureate to take place every three years, said Lyz Soto, communications officer of the Hawaii Council of Humanities. The succeeding poet laureate likely will be announced in January, she said.

Until then Kealoha will film 10 workshops at Ka Waihona o ka Na‘auao charter school in Waianae, where he will work with a class of seventh graders. Once the filming is complete, he plans to create a website where lesson plans, writing samples and the workshops will be made available for the public to access.

Kealoha was appointed as Hawaii’s poet laureate in 2002 by former governor and then-Congressman Neil Abercrombie. Prior to his appointment, he already had taken on leadership roles in Hawaii’s poetry community through organizing events, workshops and performing throughout the U.S. and overseas. However Kealoha didn’t always see himself working as a poet.

“I was doing the corporate thing in San Francisco, wasting away, working these really long hours,” he said.

After he attended a nearby poetry show for the first time, he found himself constantly thinking about poetry.

“I just got bit by the bug. I had to go home and write,” he said. “Eventually, it came to a point where I was like, if this is what I’m doing in my spare time … then why don’t I try and go full-on into it.”

Kealoha took a leap of faith and left his corporate job in a decision that he calls one of the best of his life.

Kealoha has since dedicated his career to poetry, and along with organizing workshops, events and performing, he’s also founded Hawaii Slam’s First Thursdays and the Hawaii branch of the national Youth Speaks Organization.

Although his time as Hawaii’s poet laureate is coming to a close, Kealoha plans to continue using poetry as an outlet.

“It’s one of those things that whenever I choose to express myself, when I need to get stuff out, it just comes out in poetry form,” he said. “It’s something that will be with me for the rest of my life.”

Nominations for Hawaii’s next poet laureate are being accepted until Aug. 31 by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

The recently passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 83 appointed the Hawaii Council for the Humanities, the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and the Hawaii State Public Library system to collaborate to periodically establish Hawaii’s future poet laureates. It was founded on the basis that poetry encourages storytelling, deep thinking, empathy and connections among cultures while encouraging the preservation of culture, the arts, history, humanities, music and literature, according to the resolution.

The incoming poet laureate will receive annual funding of $20,000 per year to promote and encourage the appreciation of poetry and literary life in Hawaii while inspiring emerging generations of new writers, according to the Hawaii State Poet Laureate Program overview.

One of the challenges that Hawaii’s poetry community has faced is connecting the communities throughout the different islands of Hawaii, Soto said. But in instances where connections are made, she’s seen people going through hardship become infused with resilience and strength through poetry.

“You would have a room full of 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds, and they’re all getting excited about the way a word is phrased or the way an idea is phrased,” Soto said. “They’re also just so supportive of whoever is on stage, and in that community, poetry, in a lot of ways, becomes a moment of testimony and a moment of witnessing.”

It’s unfortunate how few people receive the opportunity to experience the beauty of poetry, Soto said. However, she hopes that everyone can one day have that opportunity.

“Not everybody has to become a poet, even though I do actually think that’s possible,” she said. “If you allow yourself to experience it this way, it can also invite you into a world that you would never had access to otherwise.”

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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.