Ohio Arts Council Accepting Registrations for 2013-14 Poetry Out Loud Recitation Contest
by Patricia Shannon
The Ohio Arts Council (OAC) is currently accepting registrations for the 2013-14 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest. High schools across Ohio are encouraged to participate in the ninth annual Poetry Out Loud contest by using the online registration page on the Ohio Arts Council website. Registration deadline is November 29, 2013.
Teachers who want to learn more about the program are invited to attend one of the Poetry Out Loud teacher training workshops scheduled in October. Through collaboration with the Ohio Center for the Book, the first workshop will be held on Monday, October 7, from 4:30-6:30 p.m., at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch Library, 1962 Stokes Boulevard, Cleveland. Cleveland poet and OAC roster artist, Katie Daley, will be one of the workshop leaders helping to prepare teachers to make the most of Poetry Out Loud in their classrooms. The second teacher workshop will be held on Thursday, October 17, from 4:30-6:30 p.m., at the State Library of Ohio, 274 E. First Ave., Columbus, in conference room D. Columbus poet and educator Dionne Custer Edwards will share her expertise and provide insight on best performance practices. Teachers interested in attending should contact Pat Shannon, Ohio's Poetry Out Loud coordinator at 614/728-4481 or pol.contractor@oac.state.oh.us.
Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation contest for students in grades 9 through 12. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud continues to build on the resurgence of poetry as an art form and inspires students to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation.
Poetry Out Loud starts in the classroom, with teachers challenging students to memorize a poem and present it to their peers using the contest evaluation tool to score each recitation. By having students study, memorize, and recite some of the most influential and timeless poems of the English language, they become immersed in powerful expression and provocative ideas. Classroom winners advance to a school-wide competition, then to the state competition. School champions will meet in Columbus on March 8, 2014, to represent their school at the state finals and compete for the honor to represent Ohio at the National Finals. The Ohio champion receives $300 and an all-expense-paid trip (with an adult chaperone) to Washington, D.C., to compete at the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, April 28-30, 2014.
Visit www.poetryoutloud.org for more information on this national program. For information about the Ohio program, contact Patricia Shannon, Ohio's Poetry Out Loud coordinator at 614/728-4481 or pol.contractor@oac.state.oh.us.
About the Ohio Arts Council:
The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.
About the Ohio Center for the Book:
The Ohio Center for the Book @ Cleveland Public Library is dedicated to promoting and celebrating books, reading, literacy, and libraries to Ohio's citizens and the book community at large. The Ohio Center for the Book @ Cleveland Public Library maintains a growing collection of fiction and non-fiction books written by Ohio authors. This circulating collection is housed in the Literature Department at the Cleveland Public Library.
About the National Endowment for the Arts:
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established, bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education.
About the Poetry Foundation:
The publisher of Poetry magazine, the Poetry Foundation is an independent library organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It has embarked on an ambitious plan to bring the best poetry before the largest possible audiences.
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