On March 13, Carson Valley Middle School ninth-grader Mia Young and 14 other state semifinalists will match their poetry skills for national honors and scholarships prizes at the fifth annual Nevada state finals of Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest that encourages high school-aged students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition.
Students who have advanced from poetry recitation district championships will gather in Reno at the Siena Hotel Spa Casino from noon to 3 p.m. to compete for the state champion title. This year, an estimated 2,000 students participated in the Nevada program, a 58 percent increase since last year.
Mary Simmons, vice president of external affairs for NV Energy, will serve as honorary chair for the event, which is free and open to the public.
"With the continued cuts to arts education and programs throughout the state, we're thrilled with the success of our outreach efforts in reaching high school students with this program," said Susan Boskoff, executive director of Nevada Arts Council. "The experience of reciting a poem before their peers and the public develops practical skills that students will use every day in the workplace and in the community."
Poetry Out Loud seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by building on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the popularity of rap music among youth. Through Poetry Out Loud, students can master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.
"To learn a great poem by heart is to make a friend for life," said Jill Berryman, president of Nevada Alliance for Arts Education. "The national recitation program brings fresh energy to an ancient art form by returning it to the classrooms of America."
At the Nevada finals, each student will recite works they selected from an anthology of more than 600 classic and contemporary poems and will be judged on physical presence, voice and articulation, appropriateness of dramatization, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, overall performance and accuracy.
Poetry Out Loud is presented in partnership by the Nevada Arts Council, Nevada Alliance for Arts Education, the Nevada Department of Education, National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation. Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure that begins at the classroom level. Winners advance to a school-wide competition, then to the state competition and ultimately to the national finals.
Nevada's state champion will receive $1,000, an all-expense-paid trip to represent Nevada at the national finals April 26-27 in Washington, D.C., and $2,000 for their school for the purchase of poetry books and/or programming. The second and third place students will each receive $500, with $1,000 for their school.
The Poetry Out Loud national finals will bestow a total of $50,000 in awards and school stipends, with a $20,000 prize for the Poetry Out Loud national champion.
For more information, visit http://poetryoutloud.org.
