Listen to 2010 POL Champ Amber Rose Johnson, Natalie Merchant, and Bobby McFerrin talk about the value of spoken poetry on NPR’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge.”

Poetry is often relegated to academia, but both Bobby McFerrin and Natalie Merchant think poetry is the literary art most relevant to our lives today. It certainly is for Amber Rose Johnson, the 16-year-old winner of the national Poetry Out Loud competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. She recites some of the works she won with, and tells Jim Fleming about the value of poetry in her life.

Listen to the show here http://www.wpr.org/book/100711a.cfm.

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

Poetry Daily is tracking POL events up to the National Finals in Washington, DC this April. This week they have a special feature: an interview with poet and teacher Ron Smith about his years of experience with the program and students “living the poem.” Here is a quote from the article:

I tell you, the entire experience is full of miracles…I just love to watch people doing something well, to watch a person embodying art—really, becoming more fully, more memorably human.

Read this in-depth article in its entirety here. And don’t forget to support POL in your community and state competitions!

The 2010 Poetry Out Loud season is in full swing–congratulations to those states who have already chosen their winners, and good luck to those with competitions coming up this week and weekend! We have heard nothing but good things about the state contests thus far and are extremely grateful to all those State Arts Agencies and volunteers who help pull off such amazing events. Below is the last batch of state competitions, which will take place in two weeks. Remember, if your state hasn’t had their finals yet, go support your community and hear fantastic recitations!

California- March 15
Connecticut- March 16
Illinois- March 18
Kentucky- March 16
Montana- March 20
New Hampshire- March 20
New Jersey- March 18
Pennsylvania- March 15
South Carolina- March 20
South Dakota- march 15
Tennessee- March 20
Washington- March 20