Second Annual Dare Schools Poetry Out Loud District Competition
From a field of 1,000+ Dare County Schools students representing First Flight and Manteo High schools, four finalists participated in the district’s second annual Poetry Out Loud competition on January 28. The competition was held in the county’s newest venue, The Dare County Center.
The four participants were First Flight High School winners, sophomores Becca DeLucia and Madelaine Katz, and Manteo High School winners, senior Cole Beasley and sophomore Kiana Kinsey. Each recited two self selected poems in rotation: Beasley, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” and Frank O’Hara’s “Why I am Not a Painter;” DeLucia, Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The Mother,” and Sir Walter Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd;” Katz, George Herbert’s “Love (III),” and Billy Collins’ “The Death of an Allegory;” and Kinsey, Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,” and Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman.”
Kinsey was named runner up and Madelaine Katz was named Dare County District Champion.
In Dare County, Manteo High School English Department Chair Julie Osmon coordinates Poetry Out Loud. To promote interest in POL with funding from the NC Arts Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation, Osmon was awarded a two-day workshop with teaching artist Serena Ebhart in October. Ebhardt's workshops were open to students and teachers from all county middle and high schools.
Robin Sawyer photo
Manteo High School English teacher Stephen Nichols is MHS POL coordinator; First Flight High School English Department Chair Amy Powell coordinates POL at FFHS.
Performing on the flute while guests assembled was MHS junior Caroline Lowcher. Lowcher has earned a chair in the NC All-State Honors Band for the past two years, the highest achievement North Carolina band student can obtain.
Serving as judges for the 2010 competition were retired English teacher Joe Huddleston, College of The Albemarle representative Martin Keely, and Dare County Board of Education member Ben Sproul. MHS Theatre Director Connie Rose served as Prompter, MHS Career Development Coordinator Rosie Rankin served as Accuracy Judge, MHS Art Department Chair Robin York served as Judging Expeditor, and MHS Mathematics Department Chair Frank Vrablic served as Tabulator.
Locally, the competition was sponsored by The Dare County Center, NC Arts Council, and First Flight High School and Manteo High School PTSAs. This is the third year that Dare County Schools will be represented at the state level, as Manteo High was the only school to participate in 2008. That year's winner, Heather Overton, took fifth overall statewide.
On display at the competition were interpretive works by MHS art students in Robin York’s classes based on poetry and recitations in MHS class and school competitions. Osmon stressed that in addition to art classes, Poetry Out Loud resources are being used across academic disciplines to generate discussions and responses. The inspiration for this program is to promote poetry both in the classroom and the community.
POL began in 2004 as the result of collaboration between the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation; now, in partnership with state agencies, dynamic poetry recitations are taking place on high school campuses across the nation.
Robin Sawyer photo
As the 2010 Dare County winner, Katz has the opportunity to compete in Raleigh at the NC Museum of History for the state championship on March 6. The North Carolina winner will join other state champions to compete for a $20,000 college scholarship in late April.
The 2010 competition was filmed courtesy of Hunt Thomas, and is scheduled to appear daily later in the month on Gov/ED TV.