SIX ALAMEDA COUNTY STUDENTS ADVANCE TO THE ALAMEDA COUNTY POETRY OUT LOUD COMPETITION

The regional Poetry Out Loud Competition for Alameda County is on Wednesday February 19th, 2014 at 4:30PM in the Alameda County Arts Commission offices.  

Six finalists competing to represent Alameda County at the California State finals  are: Dylan Romero, 10th Grade, Oakland Military Institute, and Cotys Winston-Sandefur, 12th Grade, Holy Names Hight School in Oakland; Hannah Keihl, 11th Grade, Dublin High School; Niveditha Raghavan, 12th Grade, Amador Valley High School, and Bryce Hwang, 12th Grade, Foothill High School, in Pleasanton; and Brooke Bistline, 12th Grade at Livermore High School in Livermore. 

Students face a panel of five judges, who look for accuracy, confidence, delivery and articulation as they evaluate the contestants, said Maureen Hurley, program coordinator for Alameda County Poetry Out Loud.

Judges include Alameda County arts commissioners Andrew Johnstone, of Burning Man fame; actor and Castro Valley High School Drama teacher David Judson, and former member Neil Bethell Sinclair who is also a poet; and poet Tobey Kaplan, teacher-poet  Kathryn Mapps, and a former Poetry Out Loud winner, Michelle Yang.

Finalists must memorize and recite two poems chosen from more than 600 poems on the Poetry Out Loud website. Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure that begins at the classroom level and encourages exposure to poetry as well as performance. 

Wednesday’s winner will represent Alameda County in the statewide Poetry Out Loud competition set for March 23 and 24 in the Senate Chambers in the State Capitol in Sacramento. The California state champion will advance to the national finals in Washington, D.C.in April.  

Created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation in 2006, Poetry Out Loud is administered in partnership with the State Arts Agencies of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Only high school students may participate. 

Alameda County Poetry Out Loud competition is underwritten by the Alameda County Arts Commission, the Alameda County Poetry Out Loud Team, California Poets in the Schools, the California Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, call 510-271-5162 or visit www.acgov.org/arts.