Last Thursday, March 17, I had the great opportunity to be a volunteer for the NH Poetry Out Loud competition held in Representative’s Hall in the State House.
Since my writing focuses on non-fiction and fiction, poetry is exciting for my muse. This particular event is the culmination from several state-wide high school competitions. The contestants select 3 poems from a specific list and present their chosen poems in a way that (hopefully) engages the audience – especially the judges.
There aren’t any props or an official dress code. The teens’ poetry choices are submitted in advance and have to be presented in under four minutes.
The Poetry Out Loud recitation program is supported through the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and state arts agencies, which in NH is the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Competition starts in the fall at the high school level, moves to state regionals, and then the state finals competition are in the spring. The national competition is at the end of April in Washington, DC.
Poetry Out Loud encourages teens throughout the U.S. to learn about great poetry via memorization and performance. The competition helps with public speaking skills, building self-confidence, and learning about literary and cultural heritage. There isn’t any charge to compete and students from any high school—public, private, parochial, and home schoolers—can compete.
The 12 finalists who participated Thursday night each had 3 poems memorized.
- In the first round, speakers went in alphabetical order and performed their first poem.
- The second round was also all 12 contests in reverse alphabetical order, but with different poems.
- The third round consisted of the top 4 highest-scoring contestants from the combined first two rounds. They were named in alphabetical order, then drew for the order in which they’d perform their third poems.
The Champion of the evening was 14-year-old- freshman Olivia Vordenberg of Souhegan High School, Amherst. She won, among other things, cash for herself and for her school’s library, and an all expense paid trip with a chaperone to the National competition at the end of April.
The variety of poems and how they were presented intrigued my muse. I loved seeing teenagers embracing poetry with a fierce determination. These young people worked hard to memorize several poems over several months and present them in front of audiences of various sizes. If I had had the same opportunity at their age, I believe I would have passed – since standing in front of a crowd for any reason was the last thing I ever wanted to do!
Kudos to these young people for grabbing on to the opportunity to push themselves out of their comfort zones. Maybe some will become writers, since they already love words.
Lisa Jackson is an editor, writer, and chocolate lover. She’s addicted to Sudoku, cafés, and words. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has a blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom where she gets to network with writing professionals on a weekly basis — and you can, too! © Lisa J. Jackson, 2011
What fun, Lisa!
I’m a terrible poet, but I love the form. To pack so much emotion, imagery, and passion into only a few words – pretty amazing stuff.
I think it’s great that there are still programs that give kids the chance to perform poetry. So glad you got the chance to help out & congrats to Olivia!
I’m not a great poet either, Jamie. But it is fun to dabble with now and then, and to read. Poetry Slams are fun to go to – where individuals write and perform their own poems.
With all the cuts to schools and the arts programs, it’s great that this one is thriving and surviving.
Lisa – thanks for posting – great to hear about this.
It’s a huge list of poems/poets for them to select. I’m curious, was there a favorite overall poem/poet for the teens? What was the winning poem?
best,
Star
Good questions, Star.
I don’t know if there was a favorite, no 2 could present the same poem – or at least they didn’t that night.
And I honestly don’t remember the name of the winning poem. They weren’t published in the program, and the only time we heard the title was at the start of the presentation. The individual got to the mike, stated the title and poet, and then moved right into the poem.
The judges had the poem titles, as did the prompter (in case the mind went blank during the presentation). It was her presence and ability to engage the audience that really helped her win.
There was at least one Poe poem, and a Wordsworth.
More and more high schools become involved each year, and more students are entering the competition each year. It’s exciting to see.
-Lisa
I am really pleased to know that people in Washington are being encouraged for poetry. being a poet myself, i miss that sort of encouragement. It isn’t important to win competitions, however they feel good. It is more important to be in the mix of things and being read and encouraged. America is second to pakistan in searches related to poetry on Google trends. It is certainly good to see US being a patron of such an art.
Will keep in touch with this blog.