Katelynn Cavin, a junior from Mount Vernon, won the ASMSA Poetry Out Loud competition and will represent the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts at the state competition in March.
Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country, according to the program’s website. Students recite selected poetry before a group of judges who score the students’ performance and recitation accuracy.
Students qualify for the state competition through a contest sponsored by a school or another recognized organization. The winner of the state competition will have the opportunity to compete in the national competition. The statewide Poetry Out Loud competition, sponsored by The Arkansas Art Council with the Division of Arkansas Heritage, will be held Saturday, March 1, at the Ron Robinson Theatre in Little Rock. The state champion will have the opportunity to compete at the national level for a chance to win $20,000 this spring in Washington, D.C.
This was the fourth year ASMSA has hosted a school competition, which was held Jan. 15 at the Hot Springs Wednesday Night Poetry event at Kollective Coffee + Tea. During the event, each competitor recited two poems, one from memory and one read from the page.
Cavin recited “Crossing the Bar” by Alfred Tennyson and read “Ars Poetica” by Jose Olivarez. At the state competition, Cavin will have to recite three poems from memory.
Other students who placed in the competition were April Adams, a junior from Clinton, second place; Sephora Faiq, a junior from Arkadelphia, third place; and Donovan Hurtarte, a junior from Little Rock, fourth place.