Eleven Whitefield students participated in this year’s Poetry Out Loud competition, held on Friday, January 22, in the Athletic Center. Junior Samara Huggins won first place in the competition and Jared Jones (10th) was the runner-up.
Samara performed “A Locked House” by W.D. Snodgrass and “On the Death of Anne Bronte” by Charlotte Bronte. Jared performed “I Am Offering This Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe.
Students enthusiastically applauded every performer, who each recited two poems. During an intermission for scoring, faculty members joined the event and recited poetry. Eve Marks recited “Mrs. Kessler,” Timothy Unsicker recited, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” Opal Anderson-Curling recited “Bilingual/Bilingue,” and Steve Hellier recited “Nobody Loses All the Time.” Fourth-grader Drew Justice also entertained the crowd with “The Jabberwocky.”
Poetry Out Loud is a national competition developed through a partnership between The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. The contest encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation.
Students are judged in the following categories: dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding, overall performance, physical performance, level of complexity, and finally, voice and articulation. Whitefield students first performed their poetry in the classroom, and then classroom finalists moved onto the school wide competition.
Poetry Out Loud was launched in high schools nationwide in the spring of 2006, and became an annual tradition at Whitefield in 2012. The program has grown to involve millions of students across the country. State winners receive a cash prize and all-expense paid trip to compete for the national championship in Washington D.C.
Samara has won the school competition for the last three years, and placed as a finalist at both the regional and state level. She will advance to The North Georgia Regional Competition on February 20.