Summer is drawing to a close…can you believe it’s almost Labor Day? We hope you had a wonderfully relaxing and/or exciting summer. We here at POL have been quite busy getting ready for the 2010-2011 Poetry Out Loud season. This year we have revamped some of our materials: from our competition and classroom materials, to the website, to the poems themselves. So take some time to look through the website and our materials and let us know what you think.

Teacher’s Guide & Judge’s Guide
Although we offer updated versions of these guides every year, this season there are some significant changes. The biggest alterations are to Poetry Out Loud scoring: If you are running a classroom or school contest, please be advised that the official scoring has changed. As you can see on our new Contest Evaluation Sheet, the Overall Performance score is now out of 9, making the entire score a maximum of 47 points. To clarify the scoring process, we have a new, more detailed Scoring Rubric and Accuracy Score Sheet.

Learning Recitation DVD
We have a new DVD out this year! Now called Learning Recitation, the hard copy is included in the new Teacher’s Kits available from your state arts agency. The individual performances can also be viewed in the Video section of this site. A mix of old and new performances, this DVD is a great tool for getting students involved with poetry and introducing them to the art of recitation.

Website
As you may have noticed, the website looks a bit different this year. Over the summer we have tried to better organize how we present information on the site. Also, we have added an ineligible poems page, which is a convenient list of former POL poems that are no longer eligible for competition. We hope that these changes will make it easier to find the information you need to have a thriving POL program.

If you have any questions or comments about any of these changes, don’t hesitate to comment in this blog or contact us directly. We wish you all a happy and successful school year!!

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.

Teens in America love poetry! On April 28th, BBC World News aired a fantastic segment on POL featuring interviews with students, Garrison Keillor and Alfre Woodard.

Skype hype. Jeffrey Brown interviewed National Champ, Amber Rose Johnson, on the PBS Newshour–watch it here.

The words know what they want. The Poetry Foundation also talked to Amber about her relationship to poetry; read the interview here.

And, here is our official 2010 POL press release. Also, check the newsclips page soon for updated articles from around the country.

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

Well, the end of National Poetry Month is fast approaching. Hopefully you have discovered some wonderful verse over the course of this month and you will continue to read, recite, write and spread the love of poetry throughout the year. So as a final nod to Nat’l Poetry Month 2010, we offer a small sampling of poetry on the art itself.

Poems on Poetry
A Fit of Rhyme Against Rhyme–Ben Jonson
Ars Poetica–Archibald MacLeish
Epilogue–Robert Lowell
How I Discovered Poetry–Marilyn Nelson
The Poet–Yone Noguchi
The Poet at Seventeen–Larry Levis

Poems about other Poets
A Supermarket in California–Allen Ginsberg
Hysteria–Dionisio D. Martinez
On Shakespeare–John Milton
You, Andrew Marvell–Archibald MacLeish

Poems about Writing
For the young who want to–Marge Piercy
In My Craft or Sullen Art–Dylan Thomas
The Author to Her Book–Anne Bradstreet
Many of Billy Collins’ poems cover the art of writing

It’s April, which means budding trees, warmer days, and…poetry! Yes, April is National Poetry Month, so in the spirit of spring, here are two of the many resources out there that you can use to grow students’ interest in verse, or reinvigorate your own love of poetry.

The New York Times has 11 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month. Among them:

• A student challenge to create a New York Times “found poem”
• Read about contemporary “soldier-poets” and their work
• How do rap and song lyrics stack up to poetry? Are they poetry?

Scholastic has a multitude of poetry teaching resources for all levels of instruction:

• How to hold a poetry workshop for high school students
• Poetry lesson plans such as ones on haiku, poetry theater, and many more
• Tips for reading and analyzing poetry, and a ton of related resources

Any high school student who goes through this competition, at any level, will know how to read a poem for meaning and construction. Much more so than just by “studying” poetry. As for what he or she will take away from the experience aside from enjoying the art of poetry, I would think self-confidence is number one.

Read the rest of this article here. And another shout out to all the states conducting their competitions this week…good luck to all!!!

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!

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

POL state competitions are underway with New Mexico on Sunday and Alaska today, and more during the rest of the week and weekend. In two weeks we will have the busiest week/weekend for POL state finals; check the list below to see if your state is one of the many in that batch. Good luck everyone!

Colorado- March 9
District of Columbia- March 8
Florida- March 13
Georgia- March 14
Kansas- March 12
Massachusetts- March 14
Mississippi- March 11
Nebraska- March 13
Nevada- March 13
North Dakota- March 9
Ohio- March 13
Oregon- March 12-13
Puerto Rico- March 13
Utah- March 11
Virginia- March 11
Wisconsin- March 13