National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation sponsors, “Poetry Out Loud”
By Jim Beers
CHESTER – On Friday January 26th Chester High School hosted Round 1 of the National Competition titled, “Poetry Out Loud”. The event is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
Chester High School Language Arts Teacher, Ms. Rana Hodge, sponsored Chester’s Round 1 competition and served as Promoter and Accuracy Judge. She was assisted by CHS senior, Aden McFarland, who was the Event Assistant. Nate Fisher was Chester’s Poetry Coach and helped prepare the CHS student-contestants for competition.
The Round 1 competition was originally scheduled to take place Monday January 22 but had to be re-scheduled due to Chester’s Emergency Snow Day when ice and cold temperatures caused cancellation of school for that day.
The re-scheduled day turned out to be Friday January 26 at 5:00 p.m. Friday was the last day before scores had to be submitted to Carbondale, Illinois where the Regional Competition (Round 2) is being held.
Ms. Hodge said, “This contest is not a poetry writing contest. It is a poetry reciting contest. Contestants had to select a famous poem from a qualified list of poems provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation. Contestants then had to memorize the poem that they selected and present it to a panel of judges.”
Contestants were judged on a variety of criteria including, their physical appearance, voice and articulation, interpretation of the poem, evidence that the contestants understood the poem, and overall performance.
Besides evaluation by the above criteria, recitations were evaluated by an accuracy judge who looks for Minor Inaccuracies, Minor Inaccuracies and the Use of a prompter. The highest accuracy score is 8 points. The lowest accuracy score is 1 point.
Minor Inaccuracies include such things as confusing a pronoun, confusing an article, pluralizing a word or vice versa, replacing a word with a similar word, skipping a word, repeating a word, omitting a word, omitting the author, and omitting the translator. Minor Inaccuracies result in a 1-point deduction per occurrence.
Major Inaccuracies result in larger deductions per occurrence as indicated below. Major Inaccuracies include one line out of order (-2 points), repeating a line (-2 points), omitting an epigraph (-2 points), including a footnote (-2 points), skipping one line/skipping three or more words in the same line (-3 points), reversing two stanzas (-5 points), and skipping one stanza (-5 points).
Use of a prompter results in deduction of 3 points each time the student uses the prompter. Those deductions are deducted from the final accuracy score.
Ms. Hodge said, “We hosted a small version of this contest last year, but didn’t go all out like we have this year. This year we opened it to the public and advertised a bit. Our Assistant Event Sponsor, Aden McFarland, did a wonderful job of providing an excellent hors d’ oeuvre table, and things were much better organized.”
“This year we had an original list of 13 contestants, but due to the change of event dates and some sports games, our final list ended up being eight contestants, and one of them did not show up.”
The event took place in Chester High School’s Juergens Gymnasium. The performances took place on the stage while the three judges sat approximately 20-feet from the stage at the center stage point. Chairs for guests were arranged behind the judges’ tables.
Against the west side of the gym was the beautifully decorated and plentifully loaded hors d’ oeuvre table. The wonderful selections of food and drink included mini hot dogs in a blanket, a full fruit tray and vegetable tray complete with dips, a wide variety of chips and dips, fresh baked homemade cookies, and iced tea, lemonade, and bottled water. Aden McFarland baked all of the delicious cookies and prepared the hot dogs in a blanket.
Judges for the event included Chester High School English Teacher, Paula Ray, recently retired Chester High School English Teacher, Mike Springston, and the new Chester Public Library Administrative Librarian, Kira Browning.
Contestants were (in order of appearance), Camryn Luthy, a senior, who presented, “The Albatross”, by Kate Bass; Alex “Ice” Smith, a senior, who presented, “Constantly Risking Absurdity”, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Nico De Guzman, a junior, who presented, “Truth”, by Gwendolyn Brooks; and Jason Sibley, a sophomore, who presented, “Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday”, by Robert Hayden,
Brooklyn Webb, a senior, who presented, “After the Winter”, by Claude McKay; Ary Shipley, a junior, who presented, “In Exchange for my Absence”, by Cynthia Guardado; and T.J. Lyons, a senior, who presented, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”, by G. M. Hopkin.
Any high school student, freshman through senior, was eligible to enter the contest. An eighth student was entered in the lineup, but did not attend the contest. Eva Meade, a junior, was scheduled to present, “Invisible Children”, by Mariana Lanos.
A total of 130 points was possible if a contestant did not have any deductions. When announcing the final awards, Ms. Hodge stated that all of the contestants did a wonderful job and that all scores were close and near the upper 90’s to 100-point mark.
The top two students with the top-two point totals earned the right to advance to the Regional Competition to be held at the Carbondale, Illinois “Art Space” on Friday February 9th.
Chester’s top winner was T.J. Lyons with his presentation of, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”, by G.M. Hopkin. He had a score of 100 points. The second place winner was Nico De Guzman with her presentation of, “Truth”, by Gwendolyn Brooks. Her score was 97 points.
Both students will advance to the Regionals in Carbondale. From Carbondale, winning students will advance to the State Competition in Springfield, Illinois. The finals competition will be held in Washington D.C. and has monetary awards for winners.
Robin Barton, CHS Assistant Principal, said, “Ms. Hodge put on a great event that was open to all high school grade levels. The students impressed us all with their expressive reciting of poetry.”
Ms. Hodge said, “The event was a success and I was proud of all of the contestants. We definitely will do this again next year and make it even bigger and better. I want to thank the judges, Paula Ray, Mike Springston, and Kira Browning. Also thanks to Aden McFarland, the CHS Administration, and our Poetry Coach, Nate Fisher. Finally, ‘thank you’ to members of the community and the CHS teachers and staff who came to the event!”\
Two Chester High School students have qualified to advance to the Regional level of the 2024 “Poetry Out Loud” contest. This contest took place at Chester High School for Round 1 competition Friday January 26. The event was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. The overall winner of the Chester Round 1 Contest was TJ Lyons (right), a CHS senior. He presented , “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”, by G.M. Hopkin. In second Place was Nico De Guzman (left), a junior at CHS. Her presentation was, “Truth”, by Gwendolyn Brooks. These top-two winners will advance to the Regional Competition held at Art Space in Carbondale, Illinois on Friday February 9th. The event was organized by CHS English Teacher, Rana Hodge (middle). Jim Beers Photo
Judges for the 2024 Round 1 “Poetry Out Loud” contest included (left to right) Mike Springston, Retired Chester High School English Teacher, Kira Browning, Chester Public Library Administrative Librarian, and Paula Ray, Current Chester High School English Teacher. Jim Beers Photo
Sponsor, Prompter, Emcee and Accuracy Judge for the 2024 “Poetry Out Loud” contest was Chester High School English Teacher, Rana Hodge. Here, Hodge welcomes everyone to the event and recognizes several key people who helped make it all possible. Jim Beers Photo
Following the contestant presentations, the judges and Poetry Coach tabulate scores to determine who would advance to the upcoming Regional Competition at Art Space in Carbondale, Illinois on Friday February 9th. Jim Beers Photo
Judges take notes and complete evaluation score sheets while contestant Jason Sibley performs his poetic presentation during the competition. Pictured (left to right) from behind are Paula Ray, Kira Browning, Mike Springston, Rana Hodge, and Nate Fisher. Jim Beers Photo
Contestant Ary Shipley, a CHS junior, presents her poem, “In Exchange for My Absence”, by Cynthia Guardado. Jim Beers Photo
Contestant Camryn Luthy, a CHS senior, presents her poem, “The Albatross” , by Kate Bass. Jim Beers Photo
Contestant Brooklyn Webb, a CHS senior, presents her poem, “After the Winter” , by Claude Mckay. Jim Beers Photo
Contestant Jason Sibley, a sophomore, presents his poem, “Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday”, by Robert Hayden. Jim Beers Photo
Contestant Alex “Ice” Smith, presents his poem, “Constantly Risking Absurdity”, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Jim Beers Photo
TJ Lyons, a CHS senior, Presents his poem, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”, by G.M. Hopkin. Lyons was the overall winner of the contest and will advance to the Regional Competition. He had the top score of 100 points. Jim Beers Photo
Nico De Guzman, a CHS junior, presents her poem, “Truth”, by Gwendolyn Brooks. De Guzman placed second in the competition with a total of 97 points and will advance to the Regional Competition. Jim Beers Photo