Maya Angelou once said, “Poetry is music written for the human voice.” This way of expression is as unique as the person who pens it. The Arkansas Arts Council wants to help students find their voice through poetry with Poetry Out Loud.
To help with this, the Arts Council has partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation for Poetry Out Loud, a free high school program (9th – 12th grade) that encourages students to learn poetry through memorization and recitation.
The program helps students build self-confidence, develop public-speaking skills, learn literary history and more.
It all starts on the school level, where individual school across the state hold their own poetry competition. Those winners then move on to a state level competition, where they win a $200 cash prize and an all-expenses paid trip with an adult chaperone to Washington D.C. The winner’s school also receives a $500 cash stipend to purchase poetry materials.
The winner of each state then competes on a national level in Washington, D.C. where the overall winner receives $20,000. Second place receives $10,000, third place receives $5,000 and fourth through 12th place receives $1,000.
School competitions have been ongoing since August 2021, but there is still time to get your school involved. We have extended the deadline to Friday, Feb. 11, 2022 for schools to hold their competitions.
State finals will be March 11, 2022.
Poetry Out Loud is available to all high schools in Arkansas, as well as homeschools and organizations with interested high school students.
For information on how to get your school involved, please contact Matt Boyce, arts and education program manager, at 501-324-9769 or [email protected].