2017 national finals - neapoetry out loud 2017 national finals 1 welcome to our nation’s capital...

2017 NATIONAL FINALS

April 25–26Lisner Auditorium The George Washington UniversityWashington, DC

Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. Visit arts.gov to learn more about the NEA.

The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative partnerships, prizes, and programs.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation develops partnerships and programs that reinforce artists’ capacity to create and present work and advance access to and participation in the arts. The Foundation was created in 1979 and is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the region’s state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional, national, and international perspective.

Poetry Out Loud is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and the state and jurisdictional arts agencies of the United States. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals are administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

The Poetry Out Loud National Finals will also be webcast live at arts.gov

Poetry Out Loud 2017 National Finals

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Welcome to our nation’s capital and the final competition of the 2017 Poetry Out Loud

National Recitation Contest.

Since the program began in 2005, more than 3.3 million students and 50,000 teachers from

12,000 schools across the country have participated in Poetry Out Loud. Fifty-three students

have advanced to the National Finals—one from every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto

Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We congratulate all our state champions on their successes

and recognize the courage and hard work that brought them here today. To the family, friends,

teachers, state arts agency staff, and partners who have emboldened and supported these

students along their journey, we offer an enthusiastic round of applause—thank you.

Every audience member, whether with us in person, watching the live webcast, or following us

at #POL17, will witness how a poem is transformed when taken off the page and spoken aloud.

These students have explored the intricacies of poetry and brought their own experience to the

interpretation and delivery. It is their task to return the poem to the world, to make it new. You

will hear poems written centuries ago and others newly minted, and you will hear a few poems

recited more than once—consider what each unique perspective reveals.

This year we celebrate the return of Poetry Ourselves, an additional competition for original

student work. We will announce the winners on Finals night!

Poetry is an ancient art that still thrives in our popular culture because of its allegiance to

imagination and invention and its power to inspire and enlighten. In the words of this year’s

Poetry Ourselves judge, Naomi Shihab Nye, “Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we

overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.” We invite you to

pause with us, to listen closely to these recitations, and to participate in the art of witness.

A warm welcome to all of our guests, and best of luck to our competitors.

Jane Chu Henry BienenChairman PresidentNational Endowment for the Arts Poetry Foundation

Photo courtesy of the Poetry Foundation

Photo by Steve Peterson


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SEMIFINALS PROGRAMApril 25 Semifinals

Hosts and Judges

HostsJosephine Reed is the media producer for the Public Affairs office at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). She produces and hosts the NEA’s weekly podcast, Art Works, a program that features interviews with artists and creative thinkers. Before coming to the NEA, Reed directed XM Satellite Radio’s book and contemporary theater channel and hosted the program, Writers on Writing. In partnership with the NEA, Reed also created the series, The Big Read on XM. Passionate about language, she has interviewed writers of all genres throughout her career, including novelists, historians, playwrights, and poets.

Stephen F. Schmidt has been a professional actor for more than 40 years, and has lived and worked in New York, Los Angeles, and for the past 29 years in the DC-Baltimore area. He is an associate artist of Ford’s Theatre, where he is also a teaching artist and for the past eight years has worked with educators from across the country teaching the art of oratory. He is currently in the musical Ragtime at Ford’s where he is also performing in One Destiny, a two-man show about

9:00 am Semifinal One1:00 pm Semifinal Two5:00 pm Semifinal Three

Welcome and IntroductionsEleanor Billington Stephen Young

HostsStephen F. SchmidtAnderson Wells Josephine Reed

First Round

Second Round

Intermission

Awards Presentation

Announcement of Regional FinalistsTop eight competitors in each semifinal will recite a third poem

Third Round

Announcement of National FinalistsTop three competitors in each semifinal will advance to the National Finals

the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Last season, he played Everett Dirksen, among others, in the Arena Stage production of All The Way, the Tony- and Drama Desk Award-winning play by Robert Schenkkan about Lyndon Baines Johnson and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He can be seen in the Clint Eastwood film, J. Edgar and can also be seen in the third episode of the second season of House of Cards as Senator Abner.

Anderson Wells is an actor and singer in the DC area. He has worked with theater education programs at Center Stage in Maryland and Tyler Hill Camp in Pennsylvania. He has performed with many a cappella groups, including DC’s Vox Pop and The Lobby. Currently, Wells is the education manager and registrar for Studio Theatre and is the newest member of the faculty at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory. Wells holds a BFA in acting from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and continues to train at Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.

JudgesREGION ONE

Dan Brady is the poetry editor of Barrelhouse magazine—a bi-annual print

journal featuring poetry, fiction, interviews, and essays—and the former editor of American Poet, the journal of the Academy of American Poets. Brady’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Artifice, Big Lucks, Everyday Genius, H_NGM_N, Sink Review, and So and So Magazine, among others. He is also the author of two chapbooks, Cabin Fever/Fossil Record and Leroy Sequences. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Erika Sánchez is a poet, novelist, and essayist living in Chicago. Her debut poetry collection,

Lessons on Expulsion: Poems, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in July 2017, and her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, will be published in the fall of 2017. Sánchez is a CantoMundo fellow and winner of the 2013 Discovery/Boston Review Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Boston Review, Hayden’s Ferry

Review, Hunger Mountain, Pleiades, and Poetry magazine; on Latino USA (NPR); and in the anthology Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation.

Joanne Seelig is the director of education at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland,

a professional theater and education center dedicated to serving youth of all abilities. She is an arts educator with more than 15 years of experience managing programs, teaching, and creating performing arts experiences for youth. Seelig has administered youth programs for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the National Building Museum, and most recently, the Smithsonian Associates. She has taught in a variety of educational settings including museums, theaters, public schools, and juvenile detention centers and holds an MA in arts education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Frank X Walker is a professor in the department of English and the African American

and Africana Studies program at the University of Kentucky and the founding editor of pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture. In 2013, he was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky, becoming the youngest and the first African-American poet to hold that position. Walker is the author of eight collections of poetry, including Affrilachia; Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York, which won the Lillian Smith Book Award; Black Box; and his latest collections, About Flight and The Affrilachian Sonnets. He is also a 2005 recipient of the Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry.

Semifinals Hosts and Judges


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REGION TWO

Jennifer Chang is a poet and scholar. Her debut poetry collection, The History of

Anonymity, was selected for the Virginia Quarterly Review’s poetry series and was a finalist for the Shenandoah/Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers. Chang’s work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including the Poetry Society of America’s New American Poets Series, The Helen Burns Poetry Anthology: New Voices, and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2006. Her honors include fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Barbara Deming Foundation, and Virginia Commission for the Arts, among others. She teaches at The George Washington University and lives in Washington, DC.

Christian Conn is an actor living in New York City. His stage credits include roles with

Classic Stage Company, Red Bull Theatre, The Flea Theater, 59e59, Ars Nova, and The Acting Company in New York. Regionally, he’s played lead roles at The Shakespeare Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and numerous others. Conn also works as a teaching artist for The Acting Company and has taught Shakespearean verse workshops all over the country.

Prageeta Sharma is the author of Bliss to Fill, Infamous Landscapes, Undergloom, and

The Opening Question, winner of the 2004 Fence Modern Poets Prize. Her poems and writing have appeared in Art Asia Pacific, BOMB, Boston Review, Fence, Indiana Review, The Literary Review, Vanitas, Women’s Review of Books, and other journals. She earned her

MFA from Brown University and an MA in media studies from The New School. Her honors and awards include a 2010 George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation fellowship. Sharma is a professor at the University of Montana and is currently teaching at the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Javier Zamora is a poet and a 2016-2018 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford

University. His poetry has appeared in several publications, including American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Poetry magazine, Kenyon Review, and the New Republic. Zamora has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, CantoMundo, Colgate University, and Macondo Writers’ Workshop. He was awarded the 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. His first book, Unaccompanied, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press.

REGION THREE

Dr. Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis is a founding director of the Washington, DC-based arts

nonprofit, The Asian American Literary Review, and serves as co-editor-in-chief of its critically acclaimed literary journal. A consulting curator with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, he currently coordinates the Smithsonian Asian-Latino Project. Since 2006, he has taught literature, film, and mixed race studies for the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland. His fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction have appeared or will appear in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Ploughshares, Gastronomica, Kenyon Review, Amerasia Journal, AGNI online, and Fiction International, among others.

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is a Cave Canem fellow and has attended the Soul Mountain

Writer’s Retreat, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in


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Semifinals Hosts and Judges

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POETRY OURSELVESPoetry Ourselves was launched in 2016 as a part of the NEA’s 50th anniversary celebration and is another way the NEA encourages student creativity. Each Poetry Out Loud state champion had the opportunity to submit an original work of poetry in one of two categories—written or spoken. Poet Naomi Shihab Nye judged this year’s submissions. Winning poems may be featured on the NEA website, arts.gov, and the Poetry Out Loud website, poetryoutloud.org. Winners and runners-up will be announced at the National Finals on April 26.

Naomi Shihab Nye is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, which was a National Book Award Finalist in 2002. She served as a chancellor of the Academy of American

Poets from 2009 to 2015 and has received numerous honors, including the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and four Pushcart Prizes.

Provincetown. She is on the advisory committee for the biennial Split This Rock Festival and is part of the Black Ladies Brunch Collective. Her work can be read in many anthologies and journals, including The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, Delaware Poetry Review, and Fledgling Rag. Her first poetry collection, Haint, was published by Gival Press last year. She coordinates the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Thomas Dooley is the author of Trespass, a winner of the National Poetry Series. A practitioner

of narrative medicine, Dooley provides creative writing services at the bedsides of hospitalized teens and has presented internationally on the subject of pediatric illness narratives. He is the artistic director of Emotive Fruition, a New York-based collective of poets and actors who work to change the way artists and audiences engage

with live poetry. A member of the creative writing faculty at New York University, Dooley lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Seema Reza is the author of When the World Breaks Open, a memoir of essays and poetry

published by Red Hen Press. Based outside of Washington, DC, she coordinates and facilitates a multi-hospital arts program that encourages the use of the arts as a tool for narration, self-care, and socialization. Her writing has appeared in print and online in Entropy, Bellevue Literary Review, The Offing, Full Grown People, and The Nervous Breakdown, among others. She serves as a council member-at-large for the Transformative Language Arts Network.

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WelcomeElizabeth Acevedo

Roll Call of State Champions

Opening Remarks and Announcement of Poetry Ourselves Winners Jane Chu, ChairmanNational Endowment for the Arts

First Round

RemarksHenry Bienen, PresidentPoetry Foundation

Second Round

Presentation of Medals

Announcement of Three Finalists

Final Round

RemarksPam Breaux, CEONational Assembly of State Arts Agencies

PerformanceBen Sollee

Announcement of Poetry Out Loud National Champion

HostElizabeth Acevedo is the youngest child and only daughter of Dominican immigrants. She

holds a BA in performing arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland. With over 14 years of performance experience, Acevedo has toured nationally and internationally. She has two collections of poetry, Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths, and winner of the 2016 Berkshire Prize, Medusa Reads La Negra’s Palm. The Poet X, her debut young adult novel about a teen poet competing for the first time, will be published by HarperCollins in Spring 2018. She lives with her partner in Washington, DC.

NATIONAL FINALS PROGRAMApril 26


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Finals Host and Judges

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JudgesMarilyn Chin is a poet, anthologist, translator, educator, and novelist. Her books of poetry

include Hard Love Province, which won the 2015 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; Rhapsody in Plain Yellow; The Phoenix Gone, the Terrace Empty; and Dwarf Bamboo. Her work has been featured in a variety of anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, The Norton Introduction to Poetry, and The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry. She has won numerous awards, including fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Chin is a Professor Emerita in the MFA program at San Diego State University.

Philippa Hughes is a creative placemaker, speaker, and cultural engineer. She founded the Pink

Line Project, a calendar of all things cool and creative in DC, and writes a widely read blog highlighting the best of the DC art scene. She created the Pink Line Project to inspire creative thinking in everyone, to build community, and to open portals to art and culture for the curious. Hughes hopes to help both residents and visitors see beyond the institutions and politics of DC and view the city as a place filled with incredible people doing amazingly creative things using art, technology, and good old-fashioned ingenuity.

Valerie Martínez is a poet, educator, arts administrator, and collaborative artist. Her most recent

book of poetry, Each and Her, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won the 2011 Arizona Book Award, among many other prestigious awards. Martínez’s poetry, translations, and essays have appeared widely in literary magazines, including American Poetry Review, AGNI, Parnassus, Puerto del Sol, and Colorado

Review. She taught poetry and literature at the university level from 1987 to 2009. Martínez was the Poet Laureate for the City of Santa Fe from 2008 to 2010. Currently, she is the founding director of Artful Life, which works to transform communities through collaborative art.

Adrian Matejka is the author of The Devil’s Garden, which won the New York/New England

Award, and Mixology, a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series and finalist for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature. His collection of poems, The Big Smoke, was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award, the 2014 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His new book, Map to the Stars, was recently released by Penguin. Matejka teaches in the MFA program at Indiana University in Bloomington and is currently working on a graphic novel.

Andrew White is the connectivity and engagement director and a founding member of

Lookingglass Theatre Company, where he served as artistic director from 1990–92, and most recently from 2010–16. As a Lookingglass ensemble member and performer, he has participated in the workshop and development of more than 30 Lookingglass original productions. He wrote the book and lyrics for Lookingglass’ 2012 production of Eastland: A New Musical; received a Jeff Award for his 2004 adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984, which was presented at Steppenwolf Theatre Company this season as part of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults program; and wrote and directed Of One Blood for Lookingglass in 1989.

Finals Host and Judges


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2017 State Champions

Alabama

Raina B. VerserNew Century Technology High School

Alaska

Isabella WeissColony High School

Arizona

Kellen V. VuArizona School for the Arts

Arkansas

Sydney BaylessLake Hamilton High School

California

Levi Lakota LoweSonora Union High School

Colorado

Will EdelsonFountain Valley School

Connecticut

Gabrielle D. KunzikaClassical Magnet School Delaware

Cecilia ErguetaWilmington Friends School

District of Columbia

Tyrone LewisCapital City Public Charter School

Florida

Alexis SchusterWinter Park High School

Georgia

Samara Elán HugginsWhitefield Academy

Hawaii

Nicholas AmadorPunahou School

Idaho

Chloe WherryXavier Charter School

Illinois

Mariah L. BrooksSpringfield Southeast High School

Indiana

Shelby NewlandBloomington High School South

Iowa

Grace KipleSergeant Bluff-Luton High School Kansas

Sarah Grace KatsiyiannisTipton Catholic High School

Kentucky

Haley Shea BryanGrant County High School

These are the 2017 Poetry Out Loud State Champions from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Congratulations to all!


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Louisiana

De’Jeune’ Rochelle RichardsonCovington High School

Maine

Gabrielle CooperGardiner Area High School

Maryland

Angeline Faieq George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology

Massachusetts

Rose-Darla PascalRandolph High School

Michigan

MaryKate E. WrightOwosso High School

Minnesota

Anna KochevarArcadia Charter School Mississippi

Lawson MarchettiJackson Preparatory School

Missouri

Emily BauerParkway West High School

Montana

Anaka RonanHelena High School

Nebraska

Bailee Monique LawsParkview Christian School

Nevada

Gabrielle S. HuntYerington High School

New Hampshire

Charlotte PerkinsKearsarge Regional High School

New Jersey

Amos KoffaBurlington County Institute of Technology

New Mexico

Michelle ZhouLa Cueva High School

New York

Iree MannSyosset High School

North Carolina

Iman DancyWilliam G. Enloe High School

North Dakota

Zachary HowattNorthern Cass School

Ohio

Madeleine SchroederColumbus Alternative High School

Oklahoma

Kristine Caroline GuerreroLawton High School

Oregon

Megan KimCascade Christian High School

Pennsylvania

Madalina K. RichardsonJulia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School

Puerto Rico

Sarah RosasEscuela San Germán Interamericana

Rhode Island

Simon RabatinMoses Brown School

South Carolina

Janae M. Claxton First Baptist School of Charleston

South Dakota

Madison LukomskiLincoln High School

Tennessee

Marquavious MooreHarding Academy of Memphis

Texas

Grace CaiThe Hockaday School

U.S. Virgin Islands

Angelica SterlingSt. Thomas-St. John Seventh-Day Adventist Secondary School

Utah

Benjamin EngelSkyline High School

Vermont

Emily FriedrichsenChamplain Valley Union High School

Virginia

Jessica HowardRock Ridge High School

Washington

Addi GarnerAnacortes High School

West Virginia

Tyler A. RayWebster County High School

Wisconsin

Janessa GouldAltoona High School

Wyoming

Lauren HaiarSundance Secondary School


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April 25, 9:00 am

Semifinal One

Pennsylvania

Madalina K. Richardson “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou “Battle-Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe

New Hampshire

Charlotte Perkins “Undivided attention” by Taylor Mali “Peach” by Jennifer Tonge

North Carolina

Iman Dancy “Learning to Love America” by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim “On Virtue” by Phillis Wheatley

Vermont

Emily Friedrichsen “Very Large Moth” by Craig Arnold “What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use” by Ada Limón

West Virginia

Tyler A. Ray “Siblings” by Patricia Smith “Novel” by Arthur Rimbaud

Maryland

Angeline Faieq “In the Desert” by Stephen Crane “Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy” by Thomas Lux

South Carolina

Janae M. Claxton “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning “The Legend” by Garrett Hongo

Rhode Island

Simon Rabatin “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July” by Billy Collins “Advice to a Prophet” by Richard Wilbur

Maine

Gabrielle Cooper “The Windhover” by Gerard Manley Hopkins “Please Don’t” by Tony Hoagland


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New York

Iree Mann “American Smooth” by Rita Dove “The Golden Shovel” by Terrance Hayes

U.S. Virgin Islands

Angelica Sterling “America” by Claude McKay “Love Song” by Dorothy Parker

Delaware

Cecilia Ergueta “Thoughtless Cruelty” by Charles Lamb “The Nail” by C.K. Williams

Virginia

Jessica Howard “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

District of Columbia

Tyrone Lewis “Personal” by Tony Hoagland “Silence” by Thomas Hood

Massachusetts

Rose-Darla Pascal “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou “Holy Sonnets: Batter my heart, three-person’d God” by John Donne

Ohio Madeleine Schroeder “The Gaffe” by C.K. Williams “Snow Day” by Billy Collins

Connecticut

Gabrielle D. Kunzika “Rondeau” by Leigh Hunt “The Vacuum” by Howard Nemerov

New Jersey

Amos Koffa “Ecology” by Jack Collom “I Sit and Sew” by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson


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April 25, 1:00 pm

Semifinal Two

Kansas

Sarah Grace Katsiyiannis “The Nail” by C.K. Williams “Personal” by Tony Hoagland

Mississippi

Lawson Marchetti “Sweetness” by Stephen Dunn “The Statesmen” by Ambrose Bierce

Illinois

Mariah L. Brooks “The Song of the Feet” by Nikki Giovanni “Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday” by Robert Hayden

Kentucky

Haley Shea Bryan “Please Don’t” by Tony Hoagland “Self-Portrait” by Chase Twichell

Nebraska

Bailee Monique Laws “Momma Said” by Calvin Forbes “The Seekers of Lice” by Arthur Rimbaud

Florida

Alexis Schuster “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski “Sanctuary” by Jean Valentine

Arkansas

Sydney Bayless “Ode” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy “The Universe as Primal Scream” by Tracy K. Smith

Georgia

Samara Elán Huggins “Novel” by Arthur Rimbaud “Dream Song 14” by John Berryman Louisiana

De’Jeune’ Rochelle “American Smooth” by Rita DoveRichardson “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall


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Puerto Rico

Sarah Rosas “I Find no Peace” by Sir Thomas Wyatt “The Death of Allegory” by Billy Collins

Tennessee

Marquavious Moore “[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” by E.E. Cummings “Holy Sonnets: Batter my heart, three-person’d God” by John Donne

Oklahoma

Kristine Caroline Guerrero “The Gaffe” by C.K. Williams “Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud” by John Donne

Indiana

Shelby Newland “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski “The Death of Allegory” by Billy Collins

Michigan

MaryKate E. Wright “The Greatest Grandeur” by Pattiann Rogers “El Olvido” by Judith Ortiz Cofer

Missouri

Emily Bauer “It was not Death, for I stood up, (355)” by Emily Dickinson “Zacuanpapalotls” by Brenda Cárdenas

Alabama

Raina B. Verser “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman “Very Large Moth” by Craig Arnold

Wisconsin

Janessa Gould “The Art Room” by Shara McCallum “Mrs. Caldera’s House of Things” by Gregory Djanikian

Iowa

Grace Kiple “The Cross of Snow” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “Dear Reader” by Rita Mae Reese


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SEMIFINAL THREEMay 3, 5:00 pm

April 25, 5:00 pm

Semifinal Three

Washington

Addi Garner “Possible Answers to Prayer” by Scott Cairns “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

North Dakota

Zachary Howatt “Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud” by John Donne “Buick” by Karl Jay Shapiro

Texas

Grace Cai “The Gift” by Li-Young Lee “What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use” by Ada Limón

Hawaii

Nicholas Amador “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold “Lions” by Sandra McPherson

New Mexico

Michelle Zhou “May You Always be the Darling of Fortune” by Jane Miller “I Am Learning To Abandon the World” by Linda Pastan

Alaska

Isabella Weiss “Cartoon Physics, part 1” by Nick Flynn “Requests for Toy Piano” by Tony Hoagland

Wyoming

Lauren Haiar “Beautiful Wreckage” by W.D. Ehrhart “Lunar Baedeker” by Mina Loy

Colorado

Will Edelson “To be of use” by Marge Piercy “Israfel” by Edgar Allan Poe

South Dakota

Madison Lukomski “Mingus at the Showplace” by William Matthews “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg


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Oregon

Megan Kim “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” by Richard Hugo “Bleeding Heart” by Carmen Giménez-Smith

Utah

Benjamin Engel “The Death of Allegory” by Billy Collins “In the Desert” by Stephen Crane

Minnesota

Anna Kochevar “The Gaffe” by C.K. Williams “Dear Reader” by Rita Mae Reese

Idaho

Chloe Wherry “The Strength of Fields” by James L. Dickey “Diameter” by Michelle Y. Burke

Montana

Anaka Ronan “Quite Frankly” by Mark Halliday “Song of Myself: 35” by Walt Whitman

California

Levi Lakota Lowe “The Death of Allegory” by Billy Collins “Chorus Sacerdotum” by Baron Brooke Fulke Greville

Nevada

Gabrielle S. Hunt “The Nail” by C.K. Williams “The Mortician in San Francisco” by Randall Mann

Arizona

Kellen V. Vu “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July” by Billy Collins “Personal” by Tony Hoagland


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ProductionMichael Baron (director) is the producing artistic director of Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and has directed over 85 productions at theaters across the country. Most recently at Lyric, he directed Dreamgirls, Assassins, Fiddler on the Roof, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, Big Fish, Oklahoma!, Les Miserables, A Little Night Music, Disney’s Tarzan, Big River, The Glass Menagerie, Spring Awakening, A Christmas Carol, Ragtime, and Oliver! Baron’s other directing highlights include Peter and the Starcatcher at Zach Theatre, the current production of A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre, and the 2016 Helen Hayes-nominated production of James and the Giant Peach at Adventure Theatre. He earned his MFA in directing from Trinity Repertory and a BA in theater from Wake Forest University.

Chris Burns (DJ) is a DC-based music producer, promoter, and DJ with over 15 years experience. Burns is regularly called upon to play at some of DC’s most acclaimed venues, including U Street Music Hall, Flash, Eighteenth Street Lounge, and the 9:30 Club. He has released original music and remixes and engineered projects for labels such as Italians Do It Better, Nurvous, Quantize/Unquantize, New Jersey Records, Plant, and his own recording label, Mysteries of the Mind. Burns is also a real estate agent with TTR Sotheby’s international realty and is licensed in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

Prizes

NATIONAL FINALS1st place $20,000 award

2nd place $10,000 award

3rd place $5,000 award

4th–9th places $1,000 award

The schools of the top nine finalists will receive $500 for the purchase of poetry materials.

The fourth-place student in each semifinal competition will receive an honorable mention award of $1,000, with $500 to their school library for the purchase of poetry materials.

STATE FINALSMore than $50,000 in cash and school stipends were awarded at state final competitions.

Awards will be made in the form of lump sum cash payouts, reportable to the IRS. Tax liabilities are the sole responsibility of the winners and their families.

ASL InterpretersSEMIFINALS: Jessica Gabrian and Cheryl RingelFINALS: Mia Engle and Jessica Gabrian

Musical Guest Ben Sollee Over the six years following the release of his debut record, Learning to Bend, Sollee and his rugged cello, Kay, told an unconventional story. Seeking a deeper connection to communities on the road, Ben packed his touring life on to his bicycle in 2009. Since then he has ridden over 4,000 miles! He has been invited to perform and speak on sustainability at a number of festivals including SXSW Music (2011) and TEDx San Diego (2012). Closer to home, Ben has devoted a tremendous amount of energy to raising awareness about the practice of mountain top removal strip mining in central Appalachia. His 2010 collaborative album Dear Companion (Sub Pop) brought together fellow Kentucky artist Daniel Martin Moore with producer Jim James (My Morning Jacket) to shed light on the issue. His most recent album, Infowars (2016), was his first full-length release in over four years. Prior to Infowars, Ben released Steeples Pt. 2, the second of three parts in an album release of the same name. Within the past year, Ben has complemented his musical releases with The Vanishing Point virtual reality app, film scores like Maidentrip, a technology-infused production of Harold and the Purple Crayon, an interactive sculptural installation called Livestream, and much more. Through the innovative facets of his artistic portfolio, he teaches his audience that the modern artist has no boundaries.

Poetry Out Loud is managed at the state level byAlabama State Council on the Arts

Alaska State Council on the Arts

Arizona Commission on the Arts

Arkansas Arts Council

California Arts Council

Colorado Creative Industries

Connecticut Office of the Arts

Delaware Division of the Arts

DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities

Florida Division of Cultural Affairs

Georgia Council for the Arts

Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts

Idaho Commission on the Arts

Illinois Arts Council Agency

Indiana Arts Commission

Iowa Arts Council

Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission

Kentucky Arts Council

Louisiana Division of the Arts

Maine Arts Commission

Maryland State Arts Council

Massachusetts Cultural Council

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs

Minnesota State Arts Board

Mississippi Arts Commission

Missouri Arts Council

Montana Arts Council

Nebraska Arts Council

Nevada Arts Council

New Hampshire State Council on the Arts

New Jersey State Council on the Arts

New Mexico Arts

New York State Council on the Arts

North Carolina Arts Council

North Dakota Council on the Arts

Ohio Arts Council

Oklahoma Arts Council

Oregon Arts Commission

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña

Rhode Island State Council on the Arts

South Carolina Arts Commission

South Dakota Arts Council

Tennessee Arts Commission

Texas Commission on the Arts

Utah Division of Arts & Museums

Vermont Arts Council

Virgin Islands Council on the Arts

Virginia Commission for the Arts

Washington State Arts Commission: Arts WA

West Virginia Division of Culture and History

Wisconsin Arts Board

Wyoming Arts Council

and many incredible partners

THE NATIONAL FINALS ARE THE RESULT OF THE REMARKABLE EFFORTS OF

Karen Newell and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Peggy Dahlquist, Michael Baron, DJ Chris Burns, guest hosts and judges, and staff at the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation.

www.poetryoutloud.org#POL17#IAmPoetryOutLoud

“ A poem taps you on the shoulder, gets all inside of you and says, ‘See me. Hear me. I’m here. I will not be ignored.’ That’s what a poem does, and if you open up your heart and accept it, it will change you.”

—Sham

In loving memory of Shamsuddin Abdul-Hamid, New Jersey State Champion, 2010

2017 national finals - neapoetry out loud 2017 national finals 1 welcome to our nation’s capital...

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