(BreAnna Jones, Sam Green, Kevin Ma)
Two stellar high school students from the Spokane area travelled to Tacoma to compete in the State Finals of Poetry Out Loud on March 7. Congratulations Kevin Ma from Mead and Ciara Totton from East Valley on being the regional representatives!
Twelve students who advanced from regional finals in Clark, Pierce, Skagit, Thurston, Yakima, and Spokane counties participated in the state finals. Through three rounds of poetry recitations, they performed works selected from an anthology of more than 500 classic and contemporary poems. Participants were judged by a panel with expertise in various aspects of poetry and performance and awarded points for accuracy, presence, level of difficulty, and other criteria.
BreAnna Jones of West Valley High in Yakima won the state Poetry Out Loud finals with her recitations of "If" by Rudyard Kipling, "In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr." by June Jordan, and "It would be neat if with the New Year" by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Jones, a high school junior this year, is now a two-time Washington State champion for Poetry Out Loud. As the winner of the state finals Jones won a $200 prize; additionally, her school gets $500 for the purchase of poetry books, and she will receive an all-expenses-paid trip (with a chaperone) to compete in the Poetry Out Loud National Finals in Washington, DC, on April 26-28, 2009. In speaking of her experience, Jones said, “Poetry Out Loud has created an opportunity for me to go deeper into poetry and understand the feelings of the author, which not only makes the poetry much easier to perform, but makes it enjoyable.”
The runner-up, Kevin Ma, a sophomore from Mead High School in Spokane, won $100 and a $200 stipend for his school. Many of the students commented on their new found appreciation for poetry, and encouraged others to get involved. “I would definitely recommend Poetry Out Loud,” said runner-up Kevin Ma. “I think it provides students the opportunity to experience poetry as a whole and provides the flexibility for every student to find poems that they personally enjoy.”
The state finals were produced in partnership with the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound, and included a performance by Washington State Poet Laureate Samuel Green. Green commented, "I like the fact that kids themselves wind up giving an audience of adults the same advice that we try to give them: 'Give poetry a chance, go look around, try out your libraries, your bookstores . . .' How cool is that? Very cool."
Poetry Out Loud is sponsored by the Washington State Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Poetry Foundation. This is the fourth year that high school students in Washington State participated Poetry Out Loud, a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry. More than 225,000 students across the country participated this year. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals will award a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends, with a $20,000 college scholarship for the National Champion. Who knows...maybe next year Spokane will be headed for Washington, DC.
Two stellar high school students from the Spokane area travelled to Tacoma to compete in the State Finals of Poetry Out Loud on March 7. Congratulations Kevin Ma from Mead and Ciara Totton from East Valley on being the regional representatives!
Twelve students who advanced from regional finals in Clark, Pierce, Skagit, Thurston, Yakima, and Spokane counties participated in the state finals. Through three rounds of poetry recitations, they performed works selected from an anthology of more than 500 classic and contemporary poems. Participants were judged by a panel with expertise in various aspects of poetry and performance and awarded points for accuracy, presence, level of difficulty, and other criteria.
BreAnna Jones of West Valley High in Yakima won the state Poetry Out Loud finals with her recitations of "If" by Rudyard Kipling, "In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr." by June Jordan, and "It would be neat if with the New Year" by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Jones, a high school junior this year, is now a two-time Washington State champion for Poetry Out Loud. As the winner of the state finals Jones won a $200 prize; additionally, her school gets $500 for the purchase of poetry books, and she will receive an all-expenses-paid trip (with a chaperone) to compete in the Poetry Out Loud National Finals in Washington, DC, on April 26-28, 2009. In speaking of her experience, Jones said, “Poetry Out Loud has created an opportunity for me to go deeper into poetry and understand the feelings of the author, which not only makes the poetry much easier to perform, but makes it enjoyable.”
The runner-up, Kevin Ma, a sophomore from Mead High School in Spokane, won $100 and a $200 stipend for his school. Many of the students commented on their new found appreciation for poetry, and encouraged others to get involved. “I would definitely recommend Poetry Out Loud,” said runner-up Kevin Ma. “I think it provides students the opportunity to experience poetry as a whole and provides the flexibility for every student to find poems that they personally enjoy.”
The state finals were produced in partnership with the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound, and included a performance by Washington State Poet Laureate Samuel Green. Green commented, "I like the fact that kids themselves wind up giving an audience of adults the same advice that we try to give them: 'Give poetry a chance, go look around, try out your libraries, your bookstores . . .' How cool is that? Very cool."
Poetry Out Loud is sponsored by the Washington State Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Poetry Foundation. This is the fourth year that high school students in Washington State participated Poetry Out Loud, a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry. More than 225,000 students across the country participated this year. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals will award a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends, with a $20,000 college scholarship for the National Champion. Who knows...maybe next year Spokane will be headed for Washington, DC.
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