The POL 2010 season has officially ended with a wonderful National Finals! First off, congratulations go out to each of the 53 students who represented their state or territory in a phenomenal manner. Each and every one of you has reason to be proud. Thanks go out to you and your teachers and families for making this year’s Finals a great experience!
Quick summary of the events that took place: On Monday, April 26, we had 3 rounds of semi-finals hosted by Holly Twyford and Josephine Reed. Using their wide range of knowledge and talents in judging these rounds were Francisco Aragón, Ibtisam Barakat, Holly Bass, Terry Blackhawk, Christian Conn, Patricia Gray, Doug Herbert and Keith Leonard.
From each of those 3 rounds we ended up with the top 3 finishers who would go on to compete at the Finals and 1 honorable mention–all winning a prize of $1,000 and $500 for their schools. The honorable mentions were Shantelle Eddy of the Virgin Islands, Barbara Gooding of Kentucky and Brianna Anderson of North Dakota. The top nine who would be going for the top prize were Youssef Biaz of Alabama, Annette Putnam of Illinois, Nora Sandler of Maryland, Diego Javier Steele of Montana, Emily Orellana of Nevada, Amber Rose Johnson of Rhode Island, Ruth Haile of South Dakota, Tia Robinson of Virginia, and Madeline Bunke of Wisconsin.
Tuesday, April 27th was the big day. We had nine competitors vying for the top prize of $20,000. We had John Leguizamo hosting the program and a grand panel of judges including Garrison Keeler, Alfre Woodard, Valerie Martinez, Jane Shore and Adam Kirsch. We had stirring recitations by poised performers. We had….A WINNER!! Amber Rose Johnson of Rhode Island is our 2010 POL National Champion. She did a fabulous job reciting “Walking Down Park” by Nikki Giovanni, “Sonnet 116″ by William Shakespeare, and “For My People” by Margaret Walker and walked away with $20,000. Ruth Haile of SD came in second, winning $10,000 and Nora Sandler of MD was third winning $5,000. Great job ladies!!
It was a whirlwind of a trip with an opening banquet, a congressional breakfast where students got to hobnob with senators and representatives, 2 days of competition and a wrap party. Thanks to all that made this possible…NEA, Mid-Atlantic Arts, State Arts Agencies, people at the Lisner Auditorium, all of our judges, hosts, students, chaperons, teachers, families….everybody. I hope everyone had as great a time as I did…now time to rest up for next year