Poetry Out Loud national recitation contest 2007 national finals

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

and

POETRY FOUNDATION

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NATIONAL RECITATION CONTEST

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2007 National Finals

May 1 - 7:00 pm

George Washington University Lisner Auditorium

Washington, DC

NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOR THE ARTS

A great nation
deserves great art.

The National Endowment for the Arts is the largest
annual funder of the arts in the United States. An
independent federal agency, the NEA is the official arts
organization of the United States government, dedicated
to supporting excellence in the arts — both new and
established — bringing the arts to all Americans, and
providing leadership in arts education.

POETRY

OUNDATION

The Poetry Foundation is an independent literary
organization committed to a vigorous presence for
poetry in our culture. The Foundation publishes Poetry
magazine, sponsors a variety of public programs, and
supports creative projects in literature.

Ml arts1^"™ Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation supports the richness and
diversity of the region's arts resources and promotes
wider access to the art and artists of the region, nation
and world.

Support for the 2007 National Finals is provided by

SOUTHWEST

share he spirit

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
and

POETRY FOUNDATION

present

2007 National Finalists

May 1 ■ 7:00 pm

George Washington University Lisner Auditorium

Washington, DC

District of Columbia
Amanda Fernandez

Duke Ellington School of the Arts

Illinois
RobiMahan

Harrisburg High School

New Jersey
Naja Selby

Arts High School

New Mexico
Fantasia Lonjose

Santa Fe Indian School

Indiana

Branden Emanual Wellington

Broad Ripple High School

South Dakota
JanessaNickell

Lincoln High School

Kentucky
DeanMuir

Trimble County High School

Utah

Amanda E. Fujiki

Meridian School

Montana
Joshua Kelly

Flathead High School

Nebraska
Shuqiao Song

Lincoln East High School

Virginia
Alanna Rivera

Washington-Lee High School

West Virginia

Elizabeth Ann McCormick

Capital High School

Welcome to the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest finals. This
exciting program invites the dynamic elements of theater and spoken word
to poetry instruction in high school classrooms. Poetry Out Loud helps
students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn
about their literary heritage.

Poetry Out Loud began as a pilot program three years ago in Chicago and
Washington, DC. Now in its second year nationwide, all 50 states and the
District of Columbia held recitation contests, thanks to the tremendous
efforts of State Arts Agencies, arts organizations, schools, and teachers
across the country. More than 100,000 students — from Alaska to Florida,
from Maine to Hawaii — competed to be here today. This event presents
the State Champions. Congratulations to all the students who traveled to
compete these two days.

Competitive recitation has its roots in ancient Greece. And while all
contests pit competitors against one another, the oldest function of poetry
is to unite a culture by sharing its common stories. Recitation of the best
classic and contemporary poems is an art that continues to create and
deepen communities.

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Dana Gioia

Chairman

National Endowment for the Arts

John Barr

President

Poetry Foundation

Prizes

National Finals

1st place $20,000 college scholarship prize

2nd place $10,000 college scholarship prize

3rd place $5,000 college scholarship prize

4th- 12th place $1,000 college scholarship prize

The schools of the top 12 finalists will receive $500 for the purchase of
poetry books.

Each of the top 12 finalists will also receive two roundtrip airline tickets
courtesy of Southwest Airlines.

State Finals

1st place

2nd place

Student received $200 award and an all-expenses-paid trip

to Washington, DC
School received $500 for the purchase of poetry books

Student received $100 award

School received $200 for the purchase of poetry books

National Finals Program

Musical Prelude

The Joe McCarthy Quartet

Presentation of the State Champions
Welcome

Chairman Dana Gioia, NEA

Opening Remarks

Scott Simon, Host

First Round
Remarks

President John Barr, Poetry Foundation

Second Round
Intermission

The Joe McCarthy Quartet

Announcement of Five Finalists
Final Round
Awards Ceremony

Announcement of Poetry Out Loud National Champion

Semifinals Program ■ April 30

Semifinal One

9:00 am

Semifinal Two

1:00 pm

Semifinal Three

4:30 pm

Welcome and Introductions

Leslie Liberato
Stephen Young

Hosts

Felicia Knight
Dan Stone

First Round

Second Round

Third Round

Top 8 competitors in each semifinal will recite a third poem

Awards Presentation

Announcement of Finalists

Top 4 competitors in each semifinal will advance to National Finals

Host and Judges for National Finals

Host

Scott Simon, a Chicago native, brings a well-traveled perspective to his role as
host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday. During his career he
has covered ten wars, from El Salvador to Iraq, and he has won numerous
prestigious awards in broadcasting, including the Peabody, the Emmy, and the
duPont-Columbia. Simon also accepted the Presidential End Hunger Award
for his series of reports on the 1987-88 Ethiopian civil war and drought. He
hosts the quarterly PBS series, State of Mind, and the public television series,
Voices of Vision. His books include the bestseller Home and Away: Memoir of a
Fan; Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball; and a novel, Pretty Birds.

Judges

Marilyn Chin is an activist, poet, and translator currendy serving as Poet-in-
Residence at Bucknell University. Born in Hong Kong, Chin immigrated to
the United States as a child and was raised in Portland, Oregon. Chin's work
is widely anthologized and she is the recipient of two National Endowment
for the Arts Literature Fellowships, a Fulbright Fellowship, and four Pushcart
Prizes, among other honors. Chin has published three collections of poetry,
most recently Rhapsody in Plain Yellow. Chin received her B.A. in Chinese
Literature from the University of Massachusetts and an M.F.A. from the
University of Iowa.

Kwame Dawes was born in Ghana and grew up in Jamaica. Poet, actor, play-
wright, novelist, and critic, Dawes teaches at the University of South Carolina
(USC) where he serves as Distinguished Poet in Residence, Director of the
USC Poetry Initiative, and Executive Director of the USC Arts Institute. In
2001, his collection Midland won the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, judged by
Eavan Boland. The most recent of Dawes' 12 collections of poetry is entitled
Wisteria. He is the program director of the Calabash International Literary
Festival and is a contributor to the Poetry Foundation blog, Harriet.

Jackson Hille is from Columbus, Ohio, and was the 2006 National Champion
for Poetry Out Loud. He is currently studying theater at Otterbein College in
Ohio and hopes to become an actor. Shel Silverstein and Billy Collins are two
of his favorite poets.

Steve Karesh of XM Satellite Radio is currently program director of XM's
public radio stations. He created and served as executive producer of XM's
Sonic Theater channel from 2002-2006. A native of Westchester County, New
York, Karesh began his broadcasting career in high school — as the engineer for
a local morning talk show — and subsequently worked his way from intern to
producer of various nationally broadcast talk shows airing on Westwood One
and NPR stations across America. He holds a B.A. in American Studies from
Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and an M.A. in Culture and
Communications from NYU. In 2002 he received the bronze medal for talk-
radio programming at the New York Festivals of Radio Programming and
Promotion.

Garrison Keillor is the author of more than a dozen books including Lake
Wobegon Days, The Book of Guys, Love Me, and Homegrown Democrat. He is
also the creator, host, and writer of the radio variety show A Prairie Home
Companion and The Writer s Almanac, heard on public radio stations across the
country. He won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word in 1987 for the
audiobook Lake Wobegon Days. Keillor is a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Letters. In 2006, A Prairie Home Companion was released as a
major motion picture, written by Keillor and directed by Robert Altman. The
late summer of 2007 will also see the publication of his new novel, Pontoon, by
Penguin Books.

Dominique Raccah is the founder and CEO of Sourcebooks, Inc. Formerly
employed by the Leo Burnett Agency in Chicago, Raccah left the agency 20
years ago to start Sourcebooks, which has been recognized as the fastest-
growing publisher in the industry. She has won the Blue Chip Enterprise
Award as well as the Ernst 6c Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Illinois
and Northwest Indiana, and serves as co-chair of the Book Industry Study
Group. She is the publisher of the best-selling anthologies Poetry Speaks and
Poetry Speaks to Children, as well as the Sourcebooks Shakespeare series. Born in
Paris, France, Raccah earned her M.A. in Quantitative Psychology from the
University of Illinois -Chicago.

Judges for Semifinals Program

Major Jackson is an associate professor of English at the University of Vermont
and is the author of poetry collections Hoops and Leaving Saturn. His poems
have appeared in The American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, and The New
Yorker, among other literary journals and anthologies. He is the recipient of a
Whiting Writers' Award, the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Pew Fellowship in
the Arts, and is a former Witter Bynner Fellow at the Library of Congress.
Currendy, he is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at
Harvard University and is serving as the 2006-07 Jack Kerouac Writer-in-
Residence at University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

Jonathan Katz has served as CEO of the National Assembly of State Arts
Agencies since 1985. Recently appointed to the U.S. National Commission
on UNESCO, he advises the board of the International Federation of Arts
Councils and Cultural Agencies. He has served as the executive director of
the Kansas Arts Commission and has taught communication, literature, and
creative writing at universities in Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas. His doctoral
dissertation proposes a national agenda for literary activities in the United
States.

Maurice Kilwein- Guevara is a professor of English at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the author of three collections of poetry,
Autobiography of So-and-So: Poems in Prose; Poems of the River Spirit, and
Postmortem, which won the National Contemporary Poetry Competition.
Kilwein-Guevara has received awards from the Bread Loaf Writers'
Conference, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and is a past Fulbright
Senior Scholar. In 2003, he was the first person of Latino descent elected
President of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), the
largest organization serving writers in North America.

E. Ethelbert Miller has been the director of the African American Resource
Center at Howard University since 1974 and is a commissioner for the DC
Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His poetry collections include How
We Sleep on the Nights We Don't Make Love and Whispers, Secrets, and Promises.
Miller's memoir is Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer.
In 2005, he was a Fulbright Scholar to Israel and he was recently presented
with the 2007 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award.

Sandra Reeves is the senior editor of Education Week, an independent national
newspaper covering American education. A former science writer, magazine
editor, and university official, she has received recognition for her work that
includes an AAAS-Westinghouse Science Writing Award and three Robert A.
Sibley Awards for excellence in university-based publishing. She has written on
special assignment for publications such as U.S. News & World Report, and has
taught both journalism (at the University of Alabama) and fiction writing (at
Brown University). She is a graduate of the Brown Writing Program, where
she studied for two years under novelist R. V. Cassill.

Don Selby co-founded the Poetry Daily Web site (www.poems.com) with
Diane Boiler and Rob Anderson following a career in the law publishing
industry. Poetry Daily is an online nonprofit organization that features the
work of a different contemporary poet each day. Selby is co-editor of Poetry
Daily 's newest anthology, Poetry Daily Essentials 2007. He is a graduate of
Swarthmore College and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Joanne Yatvin has published more than 70 articles including commentaries in
Education Week and the New York Times, and has authored three books for
teachers. During her 40-year career in public education she has taught and
held administrative positions in New Jersey, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Puerto
Rico. She is president of the National Council of Teachers of English and her
honors include the Wisconsin Elementary Principal of the Year; Kenneth S.
Goodman "In Defense of Good Teaching Award"; and an NEH fellowship.
She is also currently an adjunct professor at Portland State University in
Oregon.

2007 State

Alabama

Khadijah Robinson

LAMP Magnet High School

Alaska

Deja Husberg

Chugiak High School

Arizona

Markjacobson

Arizona School for the Arts

Arkansas
Hannah Eakin

Clarksville High School

California

Karen Hong

Montgomery High School

Colorado

Passion Lyons

Gateway High School

Connecticut
Mara Dauphin

Rockville High School

Delaware

Daniel James Foster

Delmar Middle & Senior High School

District of Columbia
Amanda Fernandez

Duke Ellington School of the Arts

Florida

Chris Robinson

Douglas Anderson School of the Arts

Georgia

Kelsey E. Bogue

Roswell High School

Hawaii

Tucker Haworth

Mid-Pacific Institute

Idaho

Shaun Engstrom

Boise High School

Illinois

Robi Mahan

Harrisburg High School

Indiana

Branden Emanual Wellington

Broad Ripple High School

Iowa

Spencer Gilbert

Valley High School

Kansas
Patrick Kuhn

Salina High Central

Kentucky
Dean Muir

Trimble County High School

Louisiana

Mercedes Murial Wilson

Baton Rouge Magnet High School

Maine

Katherine Reynolds

Erskine Academy

Maryland

Taylor McLean Myers

South River High School

Massachusetts

Gabrielle Guarracino

Rockland High School

Michigan
Sarah Harris

Holt Senior High School

Minnesota

Thandisizwe Jackson-Nisan

North Community High School

Mississippi
Melissa Cline

Ridgeland High School

Missouri

Michael T. Brown, II

Blue Springs South High School

Montana
Joshua Kelly

Flathead High School

Nebraska

Shuqiao Song

Lincoln East High School

Nevada
Jake Reid

Douglas High School

Rhode Island
Jean-Paul D. Lagace

Providence Country Day School

South Carolina

Samara Simmons

Academic Magnet High School

South Dakota

Janessa Nickell

Lincoln High School

New Hampshire
Laura Messner

Exeter High School

Tennessee
Austin Johnson

Davidson Academy

New Jersey

Naja Selby
Arts High School

New Mexico
Fantasia Lonjose

Santa Fe Indian School

Texas
Albert Drake

G. W. Carver High School

Utah

Amanda E. Fujiki

Meridian School

New York

Allison Tepper

Niskayuna High School

Vermont
Henry Kiely

Peoples Academy

North Carolina

Aimee Elizabeth Isbell

Mooresville Senior High School

Virginia
Alanna Rivera

Washington-Lee High School

North Dakota
Michael P. Sly

Shanley High School

Washington
Olivia Seward

Stadium High School

Ohio

Barrie Anthony Jackson

Westland High School

Oklahoma

Jessica Sims

Putnam City West High School

Oregon

Ian C.Jones

The Center for Advanced Learning

Pennsylvania

Olivia Lee Meldrum

Homeschooled

West Virginia

Elizabeth Ann McCormick

Capital High School

Wisconsin

Matthew Scales

James Madison Memorial High School

Wyoming
Joshua Schaberg

Buffalo High School

mifinals One, 9:00 a.

ID

Connecticut

Mara Dauphin

"anyone lived in a pretty how town" by E.E. Cummings
"Detroit, Tomorrow" by Philip Levine

Delaware

Daniel James Foster

"Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes

"A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

District of Columbia

Amanda Fernandez

"Duke et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
"Ma Rainey" by Sterling A. Brown

Maine

Katherine Reynolds

"The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert W. Service
"Hysteria" by Dionisio D. Martinez

Maryland

Taylor McLean Myers

"The Meaning of the Shovel" by Martin Espada
"Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100" by Martin Espada

Massachusetts

Gabrielle Guarracino

"Litany" by Billy Collins

"I Go Back to May 1937" by Sharon Olds

New Hampshire

Laura Messner

"Playing Dead" by Andrew Hudgins
"Sweetness" by Stephen Dunn

New Jersey

Naja Selby

"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
"Ma Rainey" by Sterling A. Brown

New York

Allison Tepper

"Onions" by William Matthews
"Planetarium" by Adrienne Rich

North Carolina

Aimee Elizabeth Isbell

"Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
"La Belle Dame sans Merci" by John Keats

Ohio

Barrie Anthony Jackson

"How I Discovered Poetry" by Marilyn Nelson
"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus

Pennsylvania

Olivia Lee Meldrum

"Agoraphobia" by Linda Pastan
"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold

Rhode Island

Jean-Paul D. Lagace

"John Lennon" by Mary Jo Salter

"A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

South Carolina

Samara Simmons

"Bilingual/Bilingiie" by Rhina P. Espaillat
"Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall

Vermont

Henry Kiely

"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
"Litany" by Billy Collins

Virginia

Alanna Rivera

"Walking Down Park" by Nikki Giovanni
"Conversation" by A

West Virginia

Elizabeth Ann McCormick

"Beauty" by Tony Hoagland

"The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt

Semifinals Two, 1 :00 pm

_L-

Alabama

Khadijah Robinson

"Playing Dead" by Andrew Hudgins
"Birches" by Robert Frost

Arkansas

Hannah Eakin

"Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward" by Anne Sexton
"Playing Dead" by Andrew Hudgins

Florida

Chris Robinson

"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
"The Secret Garden" by Rita Dove

Georgia

Kelsey E. Bogue

"Sentimental" by Albert Goldbarth
"Sweetness" by Stephen Dunn

Illinois

Robi Mahan

"When I Am Asked" by Lisel Mueller
"Beauty" by Tony Hoagland

Indiana

Branden Emanual Wellington

"Analysis of Baseball" by May Swenson
"Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa

Iowa

Spencer Gilbert

"anyone lived in a pretty how town" by E.E. Cummings
"Beat! Beat! Drums!" by Walt Whitman

Kansas

Patrick Kuhn

"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg

"Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Kentucky

Dean Muir

"The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes
"Beauty" by Tony Hoagland

Louisiana

Mercedes Murial Wilson

"A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"How I Discovered Poetry" by Marilyn Nelson

Michigan

Sarah Harris

"The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service
"The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes

Mississippi

Melissa Cline

"Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes
"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

Missouri

Michael T.Brown, II

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes
"O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman

Nebraska

Shuqiao Song

"Lunar Baedeker" by Mina Loy
"Preludes" by T.S.Eliot

Oklahoma

Jessica Sims

"If — " by Rudyard Kipling
"Scary Movies" by Kim Addonizio

Tennessee

Austin Johnson

"A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General" by Jonathan Swift
"A Blessing" by James Wright

Wisconsin

Mathew Scales

"Booker T and W.E.B." by Dudley Randall

"In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr." by June Jordan

Semifinals Three, 4:30 pm

Alaska

Deja Husberg

"I Go Back to May 1937" by Sharon Olds
"Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood

Arizona

Markjacobson

"Hysteria" by Dionisio D. Martinez
"Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe

California

Karen Hong

"Fever 103°" by Sylvia Plath
"Snow Day" by Billy Collins

Colorado

Passion Lyons

"Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall
"The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes

Hawaii

Tucker Haworth

"Forgetfulness" by Billy Collins

"Why I Am Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara

Idaho

Shaun Engstrom

"Conversation" by Ai
"Beauty" by Tony Hoagland

Minnesota

Thandisizwe Jackson-Nisan

"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

"A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg

Montana

Joshua Kelly

"Duke et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
"Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg" by Richard F. Hugo

Nevada

Jake Reid

"The Secret of the Machines" by Rudyard Kipling
"Walking Down Park" by Nikki Giovanni

New Mexico

Fantasia Lonjose

"Windigo" by Louise Erdrich

"anyone lived in a pretty how town" by E.E. Cummings

North Dakota

Michael P. Sly

"Booker T. and W.E.B." by Dudley Randall

"The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service

Oregon

Ian C. Jones

"Litany" by Billy Collins

"To a Mouse" by Robert Burns

South Dakota

Janessa Nickell

"Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward" by Anne Sexton
"The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt

Texas

Albert Drake

"Touch Me" by Stanley J. Kunitz
"Frederick Douglass" by Robert E. Hayden

Utah

Amanda E. Fujiki

"Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood
"Scary Movies" by Kim Addonizio

Washington

Olivia Seward

"Beauty" by Tony Hoagland

"The Pomegranate and the Big Crowd" by Alberto Rios

Wyoming

Joshua Schaberg

"One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop

"How I Discovered Poetry" by Marilyn Nelson

Acknowledgements

When the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation decided
to launch Poetry Out Loud nationally, we needed to find the perfect partners.
Since Poetry Out Loud exists in so many layers, from the classroom to the state
to the national level, organizing and running the program is no small task. We
found those perfect partners in the State Arts Agencies and their collaborators.
Their expertise and candor helped us shape the expansion of Poetry Out Loud.
Our deepest thanks to this intelligent and passionate group of folks.

Thanks to the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation — particularly Karen Newell, Cheryl
Derricotte, and Melanie Robey — and to Peggy Dahlquist, for devoting their
considerable expertise and hard work to coordination of the National Finals.

We extend special thanks to Southwest Airlines, which generously supported the
2007 National Finals with a donation of airline tickets to help bring the State
Champions and their chaperones to Washington, DC, for the competition. Each
of the top 12 finalists will also receive two roundtrip airline tickets courtesy of
Southwest Airlines.

The Poetry Foundation is grateful for the following gifts to each State
Champion:

■ Sourcebooks, Inc., for the donation of Poetry Daily Essentials 2007

■ Library of America for the donation of American Poetry: The Twentieth
Century, Vols. 1 & 2

Thank you to GE - Aviation, for its donation of journals for each State
Champion.

The Joe McCarthy Quartet

Joe McCarthy, Drums
Max Murray, Bass
Gary Malvaso, Guitar
Steve Williams, Alto Saxophone

In Memoriam

Roshundalyn Scribner

2006 Arkansas State Champion
Poetry Out Loud

1989-2007

With wide- embracing love

Thy spirit animates eternal years

Pervades and broods above,

Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates and rears...

— -from "No Coward Soul Is Mine" by Emily Jane Bronte

A Great Nation Deserves Great Art.

www.poetryoutloud.org

POETRY

NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOR THE ARTS

MID ATLANTIC

ARTS FOUNDATION

FOUNDATION

A great nation
deserves great art.