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Poetry…OUT LOUD!
Iowa
high school students with a passion for poems may have a chance at winning college
scholarships through a new contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the
Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
NEA 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.
From January through March, schools in each state capital region are invited to participate in classroom and schoolwide contests. Each school winner will advance to state competitions in April, and the state champions will advance to the National Finals on May 16 in Washington, D.C. The Iowa Arts Council received an $8,000 NEA grant to create the state-level program in Iowa and is partnering with the Des Moines National Poetry Festival to organize and host it. Iowa’s state-level Poetry Out Loud competition will occur as part of this year’s Des Moines National Poetry Festival on April 1, 2006, at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines.
Each state champion will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. 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.
Poetry Out Loud seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by capitalizing on the latest trends in poetry-recitation and performance. The program builds on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the immense popularity of rap music among youth. Poetry Out Loud invites the dynamic aspects of slam poetry, spoken word and theater into the English class. Through Poetry Out Loud, students can master public speaking skills, build self-confidence and learn about their literary heritage.
Iowa Arts Council to implement local programs, offer free curricular
materials
The NEA and the Poetry Foundation each have contributed $500,000 toward the 2006
Poetry Out Loud program in support of materials, grants, prizes and the
National Finals next May. With this support, IAC will target at least 10 to 30
high schools in Iowa.
Additionally, the NEA and the Poetry Foundation will provide free, 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 on the new Web site, www.poetryoutloud.org, which offers additional resources.
How to get involved in Poetry Out Loud
High school teachers interested in participating in Poetry Out Loud should
know the program requires less than two or three weeks of class time. Participating
schools are expected to run their programs between January and March, in preparation
for the April 1 state-level event. The National Finals will take place May 16,
2006 in Washington, D.C.
High schools wanting to be part of the official Poetry Out Loud program must contact IAC to participate. IAC will determine which schools are eligible to take part in the official Poetry Out Loud program. Schools not in the official program may conduct their own contests using the online resources. Contact IAC at 515.281.5111 or visit www.poetryoutloud.org for more information.
