On September 13, CBS News Sunday Morning featured a segment on the 2009 Poetry Out Loud National Finals, which took place last April. Host (and poet) Charles Osgood visited Washington, DC, to tape interviews with various participants, including guest judge Garrison Keillor and state champions. CBS Sunday Morning is seen nationally by 4.9 million viewers each week.
Osgood also recorded a related audio segment for the September 11 edition of The Osgood File, a national radio feature that airs on more than 400 stations across the country.
As a NJ poet involved with Poetry Out Loud as a teaching artist, I am completely overjoyed, but not surprised, by the national attention the POL program is receiving. The concept speaks..or has spoken.. for itself…and the children shall inherit the earth!!!
I heard (too late) about the CBS Sunday Morning program featuring Poetry Out Loud. I searched the website, but to no avail. Imagine my delight when I returned to the POL website this evening to find the interview right here. I was able to get a glimpse of ‘my’ contestant, the CO champion, Kaleena Kovach.
I have been checking the website since the competition, hoping that the 12 finalists would be here online reciting their poems. I’m still hoping that will happen. Is it possible that I might find that here in the near future?
It is a wonderful thing that so many young persons are involved in this, and that so many love to read poetry. Thank you for giving them the opportunity to participate.
Mary McGowen
Is there a website I can access where I can hear competitors read poetry outloud. nancy
Our video section of this site has multiple students reciting http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/videos.html. Also, if you search Poetry Out Loud on youtube.com or schooltube.com, there are many more performances.
I host a local cable show Poetry Today shown on the North Shore of Chicago. Recently I taped my 12th show featuring Marc Kelly Smith – the originator of poetry slams throughout the world. It is a fantastic show. Marc told stories, performed one of his poems “The Train” and we talked about poetry slams being first, good poetry, then, a performance. It is wonderful that Poetry Out Loud is being recognized nationally and internationally through TV and a film has been produced by Jane Campion on John Keats (and she had those auditioning recite a poem from memory).
Performance poetry makes poetry come alive. The words dance in the air reaching the ear of the listener as the gifts they are intended to be. It is in the speaking of the words that the speaker experiences all the internal meanings of the poetry conveying it to an audience hungry for the comfort and meaning poetry provides in its concise way. Hooray for Marc Kelly Smith and Charles Osgood!
Charles Osgood interviewed my niece, Kim Orellana and her daughter, Emily, who represented the state of Nevada in the contest. I am saddened to say the day the segment aired, Kim lost her battle with brain cancer at 5:05p.m. I was not aware that they were both going to be on my favorite show and was shocked, to say the least. I tried to tell her how proud I was of her for having the courage to be on TV without any wig, but sadly, she was not able to even have a fon next to her ear at that point.
Thanks for showing the country what real courage is.
Love it and is very excited about this event. I am a spoken word artist and poet have participated in alot of local open mic events. I would love to be involved in the next “Poetry Out Loud”
I love the fact that this video showcases both young men and young women. That’s a big plus for us English teachers in the Midwest, trying to build enthusiasm among our students.
It’s a great site and I’ll be performing my poem to my school ! wish me luck (:
- Lensa a.k.a Linsey
yyyeeeeeaaaaahhhhh.!
i really dont get why students have to do this…i mean i get it if it was for a fundraiser or charity or something but why?
Hi Kyle!
Nobody HAS to do it. It’s a performance opportunity. Students probably have many reasons for wanting to do it. Educators have numerous reasons of their own for encouraging students to participate in this program. Off the top of my head, here are some of the benefits:
-As they are selecting their poems, students wind up reading through a LOT of poems with an attentiveness they might not otherwise have. Thus, these students are exposed to a wide variety of poems they might otherwise never have read.
-Perhaps some of these students will be inspired to write their own poems. Using language poetically requires thinking outside the proverbial box. This kind of creative thought is critical to developing inventiveness, yet is largely neglected in our educational system.
-Public speaking skills are useful in just about any career.
-You don’t have to be an A student to succeed in PoetryOutLoud. Here’s an opportunity for students who might otherwise never receive recognition for anything, to achieve.
-Some people just like to be on stage with lots of people watching them. A student interested in drama, for instance, might use POL as an opportunity to practice performing a monologue.
-Studying a poem in depth, analyzing it, memorizing it–internalizing it to the extent that you can live it and breathe it–means you own that poem forever. It becomes a part of you. Some people gain satisfaction and enjoyment from this kind of deep analysis. Perhaps there is some human lesson to be learned from becoming so familiar with another person’s thoughts.
-It looks good on college applications.
-If you win, you get tons of scholarship $$. Your school also gets $$ to buy library books.
-It’s fun.
-You might get to go to your state capitol and maybe to Washington DC, and meet other contestants from all over the state or country, which would be fun.
That’s all I can think of for the moment. I’m sure others can add more reasons.
Hope this helps answer your question!
I love these shows!
Thanks for including the footage of the 2009 competition! Love it!
A long time fatatic of CBS (more, News, than entertainment)and I was totally convinced that no one could replace Charles Kuralt on my best of the bests list. Then one sunday morning, I was listening and this ‘Osgood’ name came up, and he started describing the beauty of frigid conditions, and the pictures matched the voice, and the voice was so articulate, descriptive, distinctive, and yes, poetic. In rhythm. In flow. So appreciative of the subject matter, as well as the people who would inhabit the conditions of the described.
Charles always had a way of saying it. A skill I thought could only be matched or accomplished by Sir Walter or the other Charles.
[...] Here’s a link to a CBS video about the competition. [...]