Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest
The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation will present Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, a national poetry contest that offers $50,000 in college scholarships. Poetry Out Loud encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance and competition.
Iowa high schools are invited to participate in classroom and schoolwide contests.
Each school winner will advance to state competition March 8, 2008, and the state champions will advance to the National Finals on April 27 – 29th, 2008 in
Washington, D.C.
Each state champion will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C with a chaperone to compete, in the national championship. The state winner’s school will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. One runner-up in each state will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library. Poetry Out Loud will award a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends at the National Finals, with at least a $20,000 college scholarship for the Poetry Out Loud National Champion.
The Iowa Arts Council will provide free, National standards-based curriculum materials for use by participating schools. These materials include print and online poetry anthologies, a program guide to help instructors teach recitation and performance, and an audio CD featuring well-known actors and writers such as James Earl Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Alyssa Milano and N. Scott Momaday. Program materials are available for download at www.poetryoutloud.org, which offers additional resources.
How to get involved in Poetry Out Loud
Participating schools are expected to run their programs between January and March. The Iowa Arts Council will hold its final contest in March. The National Finals will take place April 27 – 29th, 2008 in Washington, D.C.
High schools wanting to be part of the official Poetry Out Loud program must contact the Iowa Arts Council or Donna Davilla, Poetry Out Loud Coordinator at ddavilla@mchsi.com.
For more information about the program, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.
