23 Poetry Out Loud State Finalists to Compete Sunday, March 10 in Boston

Twenty-three students from the 71 semi-finalists that competed last weekend have advanced to the State Finals of the national Poetry Out Loud (POL) spoken word competition, to be held this Sunday, March 10. The competition will begin at 9:30am at the Old South Meeting House (301 Washington Street, Boston), site of the historic meeting of colonists that led to the Boston Tea Party and a continued haven of free speech today. The competition is free and open to the public.

Sunday's winner will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC to compete in the National Finals April 28-30. The Huntington facilitates the Massachusetts competition with support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Competing students include:

Sabrina Accime, Meridian Academy
Michelle Beaulieu, Masconomet Regional High School
Molly Brennan, Sturgis Charter Public School East
Lily Bunyea, Barnstable High School
Christopher Carchedi, Rockland High School
Devon Flanagan, Groton-Dunstable Regional High School
Raphe Gilliam, Amherst Regional High School
Allie Hardy, Burlington High School
Erin Hebert, Holyoke High School
Kathryn Holaday, Newburyport High School
Stephanie Igharosa, Randolph High School
Anagha Indic, Advanced Math & Science Academy Charter School
Lydia King, Salem Academy Charter School
Ryan Kramer, Norwell High School
Mikayla Mitchell, Westfield High School
Vanessa Morales, Malden High School
Micayla Rivin, Needham High School
Ben Rutan, Algonquin Regional High School
Latanya Simpson, Codman Academy Charter Public School
Samantha Salem, Dracut Senior High School,
Courtney Stewart, Springfield Central High School
Jackie Thomsen, Swampscott High School
Justin von Bosau, Prospect Hill Academy Charter School

Poetry Out Loud (POL) is a national recitation competition that celebrates the power of the spoken word and a mastery of public speaking skills while cultivating self-confidence and an appreciation of students' literary heritage as they take poetry from the page to the stage. Since its inception eight years ago, Poetry Out Loud has inspired hundreds of thousands of high school students to discover and appreciate both classic and contemporary poetry.

Nearly 20,000 students from 81 Huntington-supported high schools across The Commonwealth competed in recent months in classroom and school-wide competitions. A complete list can be found at the end of this release.

The Finals will be hosted by playwright, filmmaker, and performing artist Mwalim, who will also perform, along with poet Jamele Adams. Stephen Young, Program Director at The Poetry Foundation, will speak. The Finals will be judged by Charles Coe, poet and program officer (CIP) at the MCC; Cindy Dickinson, Director of Interpretation and Programming at the Emily Dickinson Museum; Joie LeMaitre, Huntington Trustee and Chair of the Education Committee; Emma Sellers, Manager of Business Conduct & Ethics at Staples, Inc.; and Wendell Taylor, Partner at WilmerHale and Huntington Overseer. Huntington Overseer Katherine Jones will serve as Prompter.

"The study of poetry may be especially important for kids growing up in the age of tweets," observed The Boston Globe. "Close reading, after all, is essentially an act of listening; to learn a poem well enough to speak it aloud with confidence requires careful attention to someone else's words, someone else's experience. It means tuning out the clamor of voices competing for your attention - including your own - until you've fully heard what another person is saying."

"There's something about a one-, two-, three-minute poem," says the Huntington's director of education and community programs. "The young people competing bring such understanding of universal themes like love, loss, and fear.' You don't see their age. They get up there and you don't see a high school student, you just see a person.'

More Articles by This Author...