You are here: Public News  >  Poetry Out Loud Competition Winner Announced

Saturday, April 29, 2006 – Salem, ORE. — The Oregon Arts Commission announces that Michael Santiago, 18, of Gresham’s The Center for Advanced Learning and Reynolds High School, has won Oregon’s first statewide Poetry Out Loud competition. Michael now moves to the national finals, taking place in at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC on May 16, 2006. The state competition took place this afternoon, from 2 – 3:45 PM, in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library at Willamette University in Salem. Poetry Out Loud is a collaborative project of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission.

As winner of the Oregon competition, Michael receives $200 and an all-expense paid trip to Washington for himself and a chaperone. The Center for Advanced Learning receives a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books.

Like all the contestants, Michael first competed within his own school, choosing his poems from a 400-poem anthology provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Declared a winner at The Center for Advanced Learning, where Rita Ramstad is the Poetry Out Loud coordinator, he advanced to the state competition against three other contestants:

• Lauren Hay, 17, Hood River Valley High School (Carla Gomez, coordinator)

• Elle Johnson, 16, Northwest Academy, Portland (Amy Archer, coordinator)

• Anthony Foster, 15, Metropolitan Learning Center, Portland (Joyce Lozito, coordinator)

Lauren Hay, 17, of Hood River Valley High School was declared the runner-up. She receives $100 and her school library receives $200 for poetry purchases.

Michael memorized two poems for the state competition. He recited “Why I Am Not a Painter” by Frank O’Hara and “The Listeners” by Walter De La Mare and was judged on criteria such as volume, voice inflection, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty, accuracy and eye contact.

Oregon’s competition was judged by Poet Laureate Lawson Inada, Oregon State University theater and rhetoric Professor Scott Palmer and Beaverton’s Conestoga Middle School language arts Chair Susan Murai . Mr. Inada praised Poetry Out Loud , saying “Poetry is the heart of our country.” In announcing the winner, Ms. Murai said that all the judges agreed that Michael “recited each poem as if he’d written them himself. The poems seemed to come from deep within him; it was clear he’d taken them very much to heart. His recitation was very personal.”

All of the contestants were praised for the range of the poems they chose and the risk they took in choosing which poems to recite. None played it safe.

Poetry Out Loud encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition. The program builds on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the popularity of poetry slams and rap music. Poetry Out Loud seeks to encourage public speaking skills and build self-confidence as well as teach literary heritage.

More than 250,000 students across the country are expected to take part in Poetry Out Loud this year. Over $50,000 in scholarships will be awarded to winners at the national level; the national champion will receive a $20,000 prize. Judges of the May 16 national competition include poetry advocate Caroline Kennedy, literary critic Michael Dirda, poet Rhina Espaillat and authors Azar Nafisi and Curtis Sittenfeld. National Public Radio’s Scott Simon will serve as master of ceremonies.

For more information about Poetry Out Loud in Oregon, contact Vicki Poppen, arts education manager, Oregon Arts Commission: 503-986-0085, vicki.poppen@state.or.us. For more information about the national competition: http://www.arts.gov/news/news06/POLfinals.html

About the Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. One of the largest literary organizations in the world, it exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. In addition to launching a major new poetry Web site, the Poetry Foundation recently conducted the first-ever study designed to find out where poetry stands in American culture. For more information, please visit PoetryFoundation.org.

Print this page

Dated for freshness! Page last updated May 02, 2008