Mustang Daily Staff Report
arts@mustangdaily.net
The spoken word.
That’s what eight San Luis Obispo County high school students will be reciting Wednesday night in hopes of advancing to the Poetry Out Loud state competition.
Launched in 2006, Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation contest with the objective of teaching students to master public speaking skills, ARTS Obispo program director Jenna Hartzell said.
“Our mission is to advance the literary and visual performing arts through programs that promote access to the arts,” Hartzell said. “(Poetry Out Loud) is kind of a magical event.”
And those making up this “magical event” are students — the focus of the event, according to volunteer Kristin Bridgeford.
“This year we did a design competition for our brochure,” Bridgeford said. “A freshman from Cambria won, Arturo Gonzalez. Beginning with publicity, we wanted it to be about students and we want to involve as many high school students in the county as possible.”
Wednesday night’s group of students represents high schools such as San Luis Obispo High School and Morro Bay High School.
While Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide competition, it all begins in the classroom.
In order for students to participate in the event, their teachers must sign up. A competition is then held within each participating school, Hartzell said.
“The objective of Poetry Out Loud is to teach the student to master public speaking skills,” Hartzell said. “It’s not supposed to be a dramatic interpretation, it’s really just meant to convey the language of the poem.”
While these students don’t write the poems themselves at any level of the competition, Hartzell said they work hard to recite them in front of a crowd.
Poems are chosen by students from an online anthology of classic and modern published poems, Hartzell said.
Each student will recite two poems for the county competition and will be judged on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, overall performance and accuracy.
Wednesday night’s winner will advance to the state competition in Sacramento next month, with the winner from the Sacramento competition advancing to nationals in Washington, D.C.
But before then, the community can look forward to attending the event.
“Everybody should come,” Bridgeford said.
Different than any other poetry event, Poetry Out Loud is a scholarship opportunity, Bridgeford said.
While there is no monetary award at the county level, the competition does have generous sponsors such as downtown San Luis Obispo’s Boo Boo Records.
In regard to attending tonight’s event, Bridgeford said “don’t hesitate.”
“The moment you hear the first student, you know you’ve made the right choice,” she said. “The students that (present) their poems have worked really hard on them. It’s beautiful. It’s simple, but powerful.”
The contest is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and U.S. state arts agencies.
The event is free, open to the public and will take place at San Luis Coastal Adult School.
Kassi Luja contributed to this staff report.