It is that time again — Poetry Out Loud!
Poetry Out Loud — POL is a national arts education program that encourages high school students to explore and perform great poetry. As we celebrate its 20th anniversary, Poetry Out Loud continues to thrive, reaching over 4.4 million students and 81,000 teachers from 20,000 schools across the country. This is our 18th year of participation for Mendocino County.
We have some extra great news about Poetry Out Loud this year. CASH PRIZES!!
Not only does the county winner get an all expenses paid trip to Sacramento with a family member, we have a grand prize of $350 cash to the Mendocino County Champion, and $150 for the Mendocino County POL Runner Up. Plus both winners get a one year membership to the mixed martial arts teaching gym, Far West Fitness, for themselves and an adult family member, 18 or older.
Poetry Out Loud is the literary “athletic event” of our county and serves as a solid opportunity for our schools to do something academically collaborative with the rest of the county, the state, and the nation. We are rural and spread out, so this is a great way to unite the literary and performance-oriented youth of our county. Schools benefit from participation – students get to witness their peers recite poems, and since student pick their own poems (from the POL website), also get to see what kind of emotional nuances each student chooses to convey. The benefits to the local poetry community are increased awareness of poetry and the engagement of local poets in the judging process. Past students who participated at the county level were surprised and inspired by the talent and dedication of their competitors; the state is the same, but even more!
PLAN FOR POL IN MENDOCINO COUNTY
I have a presentation and a curriculum I can share with your classrooms. I’m also open to students who self select, sign up as a result to teacher encouragement and I am available to work one on one or in small groups with interested students. Basically I’m willing to get creative to make it all work in this spread out county of ours.
Each school can send up to two students to the county finals, and each student must have 2 poems presented as videos (see the attached guideline sheet).
TIMELINE
Jan 2025 — make a presentation — show the examples, talk about the program, show how to pick a poem;
Jan/Feb 2025 — work privately with interested students — either in small groups or one-on-one— lessons include deciphering poem meaning, mapping emotional tone, memorization techniques, dramatization; help students create their recorded video to submit to the county for the competition — this includes video/tech instruction;
Feb 10, 2025 — Student Recitation video’s are due on Monday, February 10, 2025. The student winner will also have the opportunity to submit an original poem to the CAC statewide competition “Poetry Ourselves” – won last year by our Mendocino County Champion Frej Barty! (see the attached guideline sheet).
March 16-17, 2025 — Statewide Finals in Sacramento (and a third poem will need to be memorized, as state requires three poems, in case there is a run off)
Monday May 5 – Wednesday May 7, 2025 – Poetry Out Loud National Finals, Washington, D.C.