Ohio's 2014 Poetry Out Loud champion Lake Wilburn named first runner-up in national finals
by Elizabeth Weinstein
Ohio's 2014 Poetry Out Loud champion Lake Wilburn, a junior at Centennial High School in Columbus, competed against eight other students from schools around the country last night at the national finals of the Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington, D.C. After a rousing recitation of Philip Levine's "They Feed They Lion" in the final round of the competition, Wilburn, 16, was first runner-up, and will bring home a $10,000 prize.
Anita Norman, of Tennessee, won the competition and a $20,000 prize. The second runner-up was Natasha Simone Vargas, of New Jersey, who won $5,000. The schools of the top nine finalists received $500 for the purchase of poetry books.
"I was amazed. I was definitely humbled and awestruck," Wilburn said of placing second in the finals. "This experience was life-changing."
Wilburn (pictured, right, at the Ohio Poetry Out Loud finals; photo by Todd Callentine) added that his goal while performing the Levine poem - a response to the 1967 race riots in Detroit was "to recite it with the intensity of the lion. I wanted (the judges and audience) to feel the poem - not necessarily me doing the poem, but I wanted them to feel and understand that poem."
Now in its ninth year of national competition, Poetry Out Loud is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. The program encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a recitation competition to high school students across the country. The national finals are the culmination of a yearlong poetry education program involving some 365,000 students at more than 2,300 schools across the country. Poetry Out Loud is administered in partnership with state arts agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico
"We are so very proud of Lake," said Julie Henahan, executive director of the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). "His final recitation was so powerful you felt the emotion of the poem in your whole body. The OAc is so happy to give him a hearty congratulations!"
Wilburn advanced to the top three after recitations of "Double Dutch" by Gregory Pardlo and "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats in earlier rounds.
"I think (the judges) got it right," Chiquita Mullins Lee, arts learning program coordinator at the OAC, said on Wilburn's making it so far in the competition. "They listened to his inflections, his intonations and the nuances (of his words), and his voice brought the poems to life. His commitment and passion really came through."
Mullins Lee worked with Ohio poet Rose M. Smith and Ohio's Poetry Out Loud project coordinator, Pat Shannon, in coaching Wilburn for the finals.
"He brought us to tears," she said of his final performance.
More than 8,000 students from more than 50 schools around Ohio participated in Poetry Out Loud competitions this year. After classroom-level and then school-wide contests, 36 students competed in the final event on March 8 at the Matesich Theatre at Ohio Dominican University.
Wilburn joins a line-up of outstanding national Poetry Out Loud finalists and contenders who hail from the Buckeye state. Ohio champion Jackson Hille was the first national Poetry Out Loud winner in 2006. In 2009, Ohio champion Mido Aly was among the top five national finalists, and last year's Ohio champion, Taribo Osuobeni, received an honorable mention.
Visit www.poetryoutloud.org for more information on this national program and the Ohio Arts Council website for more information on the Ohio program.
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 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.
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