2025 Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition

Name: 2025 Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition
Start: 2025-02-13T18:30:00-06:00
Location: Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall

Schedule

Thu, 13 Feb, 2025 at 06:30 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall | Monroe, LA

JOIN US Thursday, February 13th as students from across the 12 parishes of Region 8 converge on the campus of ULM to compete for the title of Poetry Out Loud Regional Champion and the opportunity to represent our region at the state competition.
ADMISSION IS FREE!
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: December 13, 2024
To register, email [email protected]
WHAT IS POETRY OUT LOUD: Poetry Out Loud is a FREE 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. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life. Poetry Out Loud is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation, and the state and jurisdictional arts agencies.
The 2023-2024 state participation data:
Number of Schools/Organizations – 32
Number of Teachers - 41
Number of Students - 565
Number of State Finalists – 14
Since 2005, Poetry Out Loud has grown to reach more than 4.2 million students and 72,000 teachers from 18,000 schools and organizations in every state, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The program starts at the classroom/school or at the local level with an area organization. Students memorize existing works from the master anthology. Winners then may advance to a regional and/or state competition, and ultimately to the national finals. Awards and placements are determined solely by the judges’ scores based on the Poetry Out Loud Evaluation Criteria. Non-school organizations, such as after school clubs, libraries, or non-profit organizations, may also choose to run Poetry Out Loud.
This competition is open to ALL 9th - 12th grade students from Caldwell, East Carroll, Franklin, Jackson, Lincoln, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland, Tensas, Union, and West Carroll.
This includes students from public, private and parochial schools, as well as students who are homeschooled!
Each winner at the regional level receives a monetary prize, travel expenses covered for state and a $200 gift for their school library. Each winner at the state level receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip (with an adult chaperone) to Washington, DC, to compete at the National Finals. The state winner’s school/organization receives $500 for the purchase of poetry materials. The first runner-up in each state receives $100, with $200 for their school/organization. At the national finals, a total of $50,000 in awards and school/organizational stipends are awarded annually including a $20,000 award for the National Champion, $10,000 for 2nd place, $5,000 for 3rd place, and $1,000 for 4th-12th places.