Central Washington's 6th Year as Part of Poetry Out Loud!
Central Washington Regional Finalists for POETRY OUT LOUD: NATIONAL RECITATION CONTEST
Bonnie Blanchard from West Valley High School and Garrett Gentry of Naches High School demonstrated that they have the “right stuff” when it comes to outstanding presentation of poetry.
The two students are the Central Washington Regional winners in Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry recitation contest sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Ms. Blanchard is making her second trip in two years to the state competition as a regional finalist. Dylan Newman from Davis High School is the alternate, in case one of the other two students cannot make the state competition. Parents of our three finalists are Michelle and Brian Blanchard, Gregg & Laurie Gentry, and Steven Newman.
On Sunday, January 29, they bested 13 other students competing at the Allied Arts Center in Yakima for the honor of moving on to the state competition that takes place in Tacoma in March. The state winner travels to the national finals in Washington, DC, in May.
Poetry Out Loud seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by capitalizing on the latest trends in poetry - recitation and performance. The program builds on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the popularity of rap music. According to its website, Poetry Out Loud invites the dynamic aspects of spoken word and theater into the English class. Through Poetry Out Loud, students can master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.
In our state, Poetry Out Loud is coordinated by the Washington State Arts Commission and regionally by Allied Arts of Yakima Valley. Regional Coordinator Linda Brown says it's interesting to see what poems the kids select and exciting to watch their presentations.
“Students put their hearts into learning two poems each and it can be terrifying to stand in front of an audience without anything to lean on but their own hard work. They begin the process of memorizing poems often without much interest, but by the time they bring the poems inside themselves, they usually become total lovers of poetry because they begin to understand the importance of the words. Those words are no longer lying flat on a page. The students breathe life into them.”
The students who participated in the central Washington competition were Jacqueline Bailey (East Valley); Drew Black (Naches); Bonnie Blanchard (West Valley); Garrett Borchert (Selah); Marcos Cazares (Sunnyside); Will Coleman (A.C.Davis); Alex Cuevas (Wahluke); Avery Gardner (Sunnyside); Garret Gentry (Naches); Angel Li (Eisenhower); Jennifer Matthews (East Valley); Sean McCracken (Selah); Dylan Newman (A.C.Davis); Maggie Parobek (West Valley); Saul Ramos (Wahluke); and Karly Smith (Eisenhower).
The teachers who advised students for the Poetry Out Loud competition are Laura Leach Duncanson (Sunnyside), Vance Jennings (Naches), Doug Johnson (Davis), Dana Lemieux and Valerie Barnett (West Valley), Andi Manion (Ike), Lynda Matthews (East Valley), Holly Urness (Wahluke), and Jeff Weeks (Selah).
The state competition will be held March 10, 2012, in Tacoma at the Rialto Theatre. The Washington State champion advances to the National Finals which will be held on May 13-15, 2012. Each winner at the state level receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC. Poetry Out Loud will award a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends at the National Finals, with a $20,000 college scholarship for the Poetry Out Loud National Champion.
The judges for this year’s regional competition were Bunker Frank, is on the Washington State Board of Education and a 30-year speech/language pathologist; Randie Gottlieb, a noted local poet and diversity trainer and adjunct professor for Heritage University; Terry Martin, widely-recognized poet and writer, and education professor at Central Washington University; and Cindy Lamb, long-time English teacher and workshop presenter as well as published poet.
The poems the students selected and presented are listed below, in the order of the regional program. The poems can be found on the Poetry Out Loud website www.poetryoutloud.org/poems-and-performance/find-poems
Jacqueline Bailey: “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carrol and “The Road not Taken” Robert Frost
Drew Black: “End of Summer” by Stanley Kunitz and “Sonnet XVIII: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” by William Shakespeare
Bonnie Blanchard: “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold and “The Greatest Grandeur” by Pattiann Rogers
Garrett Borchert: “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron (George Gordon) and “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Marcos Cazares: “Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley and “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy
Will Coleman: “La Figlia che Piange” by T.S. Elliot and ”Thoughtless Cruelty” by Charles Lamb
Josue Cuevas: “You charm’d me not with that fair face” by John Dryden and “Discrimination” by Kenneth Rexroth
Avery Gardner: “Barter” by Sara Teasdale and “Beautiful Wreakage” by W.D. Ehrhart
Garrett Gentry: “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson and ”Analysis of Baseball” by May Swenson
Angel Li: “Broken Promises” by David Kirby and ”Insomnia” by Dana Gioia
Jennifer Matthews: “Song of the Powers” by David Mason and ”Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost
Sean McCracken: “The Powwow at the End of the World” by Sherman Alexie and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Dylan Newman: “Ego” by Denise Duhamel and “Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud” by John Donne
Maggie Parobek: “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg and ”Abandoned Farmhouse” by Ted Kooser
Saul Ramos: “The Farmer” by W.D. Ehrhart and “I Heard a Fly Buzz- when I died” by Emily Dickinson
Karly Smith: “The End of Science Fiction” by Lisel Mueller and “Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath
For more poetry opportunities, join us at the Allied Arts Center:
- Adult Poetry & Writing with Cindy Lamb, Tuesday mornings, 10a – noon
- 18th annual Juried Poetry Reading & Award Presentation, Thursday, April 19, 7:00p, featuring winners from our annual Juried Poetry contest. Admission is just $5 and includes a handmade chapbook of the winning poetry.
- Poetry Open Mic Nights on the second Wednesday of the month, September through March. February 8 host will be Terry Martin and on March 14, Dan Peters. Local poets (expert to novice) share their own work. Sign up at the door. Free and refreshments ae served.
For more information check our web pages here or contact us at 509-966-0930. You can also find us on FaceBook! www.facebook.com/allied.arts.yakima