Poetry Out Loud at Parish Episcopal School

Submitted by Liz Svadlenak, Upper School English Faculty

The Parish Poetry Out Loud event was held on November 5, 2019.  It was organized by Chase Barclay and Ananya Ganeriwalla, National English Honor Society Officers, with support from the Parish chapter of the National English Honor Society as a whole. 

Sponsor:  The Parish Episcopal School Upper School English Department

Participants: Raj Anthony, Grant Gilker, Claire Hudson, Anna Nielson, Abbey Swartzwelder and Josephine Zucker

The winner of the contest was Claire Hudson, 11^th grade.  Runner up was Josephine Zucker.  Claire will move onto the next round of competition to be held in the winter of 2020. 

Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life. Poetry Out Loud is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation, and the state and jurisdictional arts agencies.  Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure that starts at the classroom level. Winners advance to a school-wide competition, then to a regional and/or state competition, and ultimately to the National Finals. Awards and placements are determined solely by the judges’ scores based on the Poetry Out Loud Evaluation Criteria (description courtesy of Poetry Out Loud).