Arts Council
Competition Heats Up for “Poetry Out Loud” Recitation Contest
Finalists have been selected from ten high schools around the Commonwealth to compete at the state-level Poetry Out Loud poetry recitation contest sponsored by the Kentucky Arts Council as part of the national competition presented by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation.
Each of the ten participating Kentucky high schools have completed a unit of study on poetry with materials provided by the NEA and a two-day “poetry-intensive” artist residency provided by the Kentucky Arts Council before the school contests started.
Typically, each of the schools had a drama, storytelling, or literary artist come in the school to work with the participating classes in selection, interpretation and presentation. Then participating classes held competitions with the finalist going on to compete in a school-wide competition with judges from the community choosing winners according to NEA prescribed criteria.
Madison Central High School in Richmond had eight classes participate, representing each grade level from freshmen to seniors. David Hurt, the artist in residence, led the students in dramatic exercises, concentration exercises and poem ensemble work.
“We’ve done recitation before. It does make an impact on students,” said Madison Central’s Poetry Out Loud teacher coordinator, Rodney Wolfenbarger. “I can remember doing it back when I was a freshman in high school and those poems have stayed with me all my life.” The Madison Central faculty was amazed at how seriously the students took the competition. Once the class winners were chosen, the students expressed a desire to do it again next year, whether there is a state and national competition or not. Wolfenbarger added, “Half the sense of poetry comes from the sound. Once they heard it, they had a better sense for what it said. Poetry is literature to be heard.”
In Northern Kentucky, Laura Schneider, teacher coordinator for Simon Kenton High School said, “It’s been a lot of fun, especially selecting the poems. This will help my students on the AP test. A large part of the test is poetry, which is why I jumped at the chance to do this. Besides that, poetry is just good for people. I just saw Maya Angelou in Cincinnati and she said that people need to read poetry to each other and to pick romantic poetry and I agree with that.”
Two finalists from each school have been selected to go on to the statewide competition to be held from 10:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m., March 30, 2006 at Kentucky State University in Frankfort. Judges will be Kentucky Poet Laureate Sena Jeter Naslund; Ken Jones, Chair of the Northern Kentucky University Department of Theatre and Frank X. Walker, Eastern Kentucky University, Department of English and Theatre faculty, author and Affrilachian poet.
The two state finalists will recite their poems and be honored at the Kentucky Writer’s Day Celebration on April 24, 2006 in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort. The state winner will receive $200 and an all expenses paid trip to Washington, DC to compete in the Poetry Out Loud National Finals, on May 16, 2006 at the Lincoln Theatre. The winner’s school will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. The state runner-up will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library.
The finalists from each school are:
Christian County High School, Hopkinsville
Teacher Coordinator: Amanda Cope
Artist in Residence: Dick Albin
First Place: Brandon Evilla
Poems: “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear, and “To Helen” by Edgar Allan Poe
Runner-up: Kendra Holloway
Poems: “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, and “To the Ladies” by Lady Mary Chudleigh
Danville High School, Danville
Teacher Coordinator: Steve Meadows
Artist in Residence: Mary Hamilton
First Place: Mason Scisco
Poems: “Song” by John Donne, and “Sweetness” by Phillip Dunn
Runner-up: Ross Johnson
Poems: “A Supermarket in California” by Allan Ginsburg, and “If” by Rudyard Kipling
Deming High School, Mount Olivet
Teacher Coordinator: Regina Beach
First Place: Scott Ross
Poems: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
Runner-up: Amanda Redeke
Poems: “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall and “I Think I Should Have Loved You Presently” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Doss High School, Louisville
Teacher Coordinator: Amy Humphrey
Artist in Residence: Karen Edwards-Hunter
First Place: Chauncy Rhodes
Poems: “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and “My Mistress’s Eyes” by William Shakespeare
Runner-up: Antoyia Mallory
Poems: “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, and “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
George Rogers Clark High School, Winchester
Teacher Coordinator: Katherine Lowther
Artist in Residence: Dick Albin
First Place: Michelle Rodgers
Poems: “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” by Robert W. Service, and “Preludes” by T.S. Eliot
Runner-up: Katie Goldey
Poems: “Detroit, Tomorrow” by Philip Levine, and “The Spider and the Fly” by Mary Howit
Greenup County High School, Greenup
Teacher Coordinator: David Deborde
Artist in Residence: Octavia Sexton
First Place: Tiffany Logan
Poems: “Agoraphobia” by Linda Paston and “Bitch” by Caroline Kizer
Runner-up: Ashley Underwood
Poems: “Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward” by Anne Sexton and “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes
Madison Central High School, Richmond
Teacher Coordinator: Rodney Wolfenbarger
Artist in Residence: David Hurt
First Place: Alexa Klein
Poems: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” by William Shakespeare, and “Beauty” by Tony Hoagland
Runner-up: Scott Whitehouse
Poems: “A Supermarket in California” by Allan Ginsburg, and “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
Mercer County High School, Harrodsburg
Teacher Coordinator: Betty Dean
Artist in Residence: Mary Hamilton
First Place: Natalie Blake
Poems: “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and “Beauty” by Tony Hoagland
Runner-up: Will Bates
Poems: “A Psalm of Life” by Thomas Gray, and “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes” by Thomas Gray
Simon Kenton High School, Independence
Teacher Coordinator: Laura Schneider
Artist in Residence: Steve Roenker
First Place: Jaron Kucera *
Runner-up: Danielle DuMuro
Poems: “War is Kind” by Stephen Crane, and “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear
Alternate: Tawni Koch
Poems: “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, and “My Grandmother's Love Letters” by Hart Crane
* Jaron Kucera will not be able to participate in the statewide competition because of prior spring break commitments.
Trimble County High School, Bedford
Teacher Coordinator: Karen Long
Artist in Residence: Cynthia Changaris
First Place: Price Dunlap
Poems: “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, and “Israfel” by Edgar Allan Poe
Runner-up: Dean Muir
Poems: “O Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman, and “Ma Rainey” by Sterling A. Brown
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The Kentucky Arts Council joins the National Endowment for the Arts in celebrating 40 years of public support for the arts. The Kentucky Arts Council is a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet that invests in programs that develop vibrant communities, provide lifelong education in the arts and support arts participation. Every $1 in grant funds awarded by the Kentucky Arts Council helps grantees secure $15 in earned income and matching funds from individuals, philanthropic sources and other levels of government. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.