This school year marks the 20th anniversary of Poetry Out Loud®, the national and local arts education program and dynamic poetry recitation competition for high school students. A partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Poetry Foundation, and Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA), the competition boasts "lifting poetry off the page" and improving students' public speaking skills.
The state's arts agency, RISCA, a 20-year participant, has opened registration and is calling on high schools to participate in the competition. The deadline to sign up is Nov. 17. This year's state championship will occur Saturday, March 8, at the Providence Public Library.
"RISCA is a proud partner with the NEA and the Poetry Foundation for this venerable arts education program, which inspires an appreciation of great classic and contemporary poems. Additionally, students gain public speaking skills and life-long confidence," said Todd Trebour, Executive Director of RISCA. "Rhode Island is looking forward to celebrating Poetry Out Loud's incredible milestone. We invite high schools to register and take part in this program that has 20 years of proven success."
All 50 states, American Samoa, District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands participate in the Poetry Out Loud competitions. Poetry Out Loud provides free poetry education resources nationally, including lesson plans and other educational materials for teachers and organizers, tips on reciting, and an online anthology of more than 1,200 classic and contemporary poems.
Poetry Out Loud starts at the local level in the classroom where students memorize and recite poems they select from supplied materials. Each school's winner advances to the state competition. The state champion moves onto the Regional and National Finals.
The state winner receives $200, and the school receives a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry materials. The first runner-up will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library. Other prize money will be given out at the national and regional finals as stipends to winning finalists, schools or organizations.
R.I. Poetry Out Loud champions for the past 20 years were:
• 2024: Jennifer Shon, Portsmouth Abbey School
• 2023: Natasha Connolly, Classical High School
• 2022: Mariama Hawa Bandabaila, Classical High School
• 2021: Virginia Keister, Chariho Regional High School
• 2020: Nayeli Santana Vazquez, Central Falls High School
• 2019: Haley Long, Classical High School
• 2018: Steven Rosario, Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts
• 2017 Simon Rabatin, Moses Brown School
• 2016: Austin Paulhus, Central Falls High School
• 2015: Zoe Butler, Portsmouth Abbey School
• 2014: Yesenia Rego, Barrington Christian Academy
• 2013: Jenifer Henriquez, Classical High School
• 2012 & 2011: Daraja Aranda Hinds, Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts
• 2010 & 2009: Amber Rose Johnson, Classical High School
• 2008: Andrew Westlake, Burrillville High School
• 2007: Jean-Paul D. Lagace, Providence Country Day School
• 2006: Kris Aponte, William M. Davies Career and Technical Institute
For the 2024-25 school year, Rhode Island's coordinators for the Poetry Out Loud R.I. Program are its director, Damont Combs and teaching artists, Marlon Carey and Sarah Ashley, all live in Providence.
In 2004, the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts began developing and piloting a first-of-its-kind national poetry recitation program for high school students. Poetry Out Loud launched at the start of the following school year in time for the 2005-06 school year. Since then, the program has reached more than 4.4 million students and 81,000 teachers from 20,000 schools across the nation.
A study completed in 2020 found that participation in Poetry Out Loud can help schools become more vibrant learning spaces and support students in their academic, literary and social-emotional development.