Poetry Out Loud

February 15, 2007

    This year Madera County was one of ten counties in California to participate in the national Poetry Out Loud (POL) competition.  In this event students memorize poems chosen from a collection from the POL anthology and website, and then they compete in delivering these poems.  Students from Madera high schools and Yosemite High auditioned for the competition in their English classes, and a total of 14 were chosen to compete in our area competition on February 15 in the YHS theater.  The winner of that event was YHS’s Kelley Harrison who will go on to the state level competition on March 23.  Kelly won $250 plus an all expenses paid trip to the Sacramento finals.  Second place was Nicole Rogers (YHSD), $100; and there was a tie for third between Karamjot Kaur, Madera High School; and Tasha Boyd (YHS) $50 each. 

    The winner at San Francisco receives $500 and a trip to Washington, D.C. for the POL finals in April.  Top prize in Washington is over $10,000 in college scholarships.

    Mary Lee Gowland, the local Poet in the Schools, organized the event and judged all of the school level competitions.  She was assisted by Pam Beecher of the Madera County Arts Council.  Sierra Telephone sponsored our local event by providing prize money.

    POL is sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation.  For more information, their website is http://www.poetryoutloud.org/.

 

The four winners in the picture are (left to right) Nicole Rogers (YHS), 2nd place; Karamjot Kaur (Madera High), 3rd place tie; Kelley Harrison (YHS), 1st place; Tasha Boyd (YHS), 3rd place tie.

 

All of the competitors