Sixteen students took part in the annual We Digress…Live! program on Monday, May 5.

“This is the largest group we’ve ever had,” said Ms. Kye Haina, Creative Writing teacher. “I hope students continue to show an interest in the class. They can learn a lot about themselves through writing.”

The program is put on every year by the Creative Writing classes for parents and friends of the enrollees. The students read pieces that they composed throughout the semester. This year, there were only performances from Creative Writing I, as there were no students enrolled in the Creative Writing II class.

The majority of pieces were lighthearted and humorous; however, a few students ventured deeper with emotional compositions. Most read their poetry, which were written in the second semester of the class.

“Everyone did really well,” senior Sean Segundo said. “I didn’t get to hear some of [the pieces] in class, so that was really cool.”

Segundo was one of the few to read an excerpt from a short story he wrote. The short horror story was called “The Day I Changed” and was set during the Vietnam War.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Photo by Jaylin Kekiwi

Members of Creative Writing hold "We Digress...." They received their books at the Fifth Annual We Digress...Live! class performance, Monday, May 5, in Kekuiapōiwanui. The book is composed of their writing pieces paired with visual works from the art students.

He was also the only one to share slam poetry with “Scarred Lines.” Slam poetry was something he explored for the first time during the semester.

“It just seemed like a fun thing to try,” he said.

Senior Lily Higashino thought that the program was “exciting.”

“It was fun to see everyone share things that they put hard work and effort into it,” she said.

Throughout the Creative Writing course, students worked on things ranging from short stories to different types of poems. They had several different “prompts” to base their writing off of, such as random ads found on Craigslist.

The major project that students had to work on was a novel written in a month, much like National Novel Writing Month. The actual month (more commonly known as NaNoWriMo) is in November. Students got an official NaNoWriMo kit to assist them and a printed copy of their novels once they completed them.

At the end of the night, students received a copy of the class book, We Digress…, a compilation of their writing and student artworks. Junior Destinee Murray compiled, edited, and distributed the book as part of her senior project.