Poetry Out Loud

Poetry Out Loud is a National Recitation Contest created by the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation. The California Arts Council supports this exciting program to encourage the California youth master their public speaking skills, develop self-confidence and learn about their literary heritage.

The Fresno Arts Council is hosting the regional Poetry Out Loud competition at the Fresno City Council Chambers in City Hall on Wednesday, February 10th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Fresno County high school students will compete and a winner will be chosen to compete in the state Poetry Out Loud competition held in Sacramento in March.

The California winner will receive $200 and will compete in the National Poetry Out Loud Recitation Competition in Washington, D.C with all expenses paid. The national winner is awarded a $20,000 scholarship. This competition is sponsored by the Fresno Arts Council, the California Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Poetry Out Loud is an excellent way to learn great poetry. The program aims to teach students poetry via memorization and performance. It has vastly improved over the years as there are dynamic variations you could incorporate with this oral art form. The slam poetry movement and immense popularity of hip-hop music greatly affects how the youth perceives this form of art.

Poetry Out Loud continues to grow during the 2009-2010 school year. The 2010 National Finals will be held in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2010.

For more information or to sign up, please fill up the form below or call Susan Hansen at (559) 248-7192. For more information about Poetry Out Loud, click here for their website.

Regional Qualifier Results for 2010

We had our county Poetry Out Loud competition last night.  Our winner we will be sending to Sacramento is Chukwunonso (Nonny) Okwelogu. Her poem choices are Insomnia, Holy Sonnet Death be Not Proud,  and A Supermarket in California. Our runner up is Der Xiong and her poem choices are Freeway 280, Epilogue, and Dirge Without Music. Ryan was our second runner-up.