The Springfield Area Arts Council will host the Poetry Out Loud Central Illinois Regional Contest at 4 p.m. on Thursday, February 12, at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. The event is free and open to the public.
Poetry Out Loud, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts and state and jurisdictional arts agencies, 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. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence and learn about literary history and contemporary life.
Since 2005, Poetry Out Loud has grown to reach 4.5 million students and more than 80,000 teachers from more than 20,000 schools and organizations in every state, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Springfield Area Arts Council has produced the regional and state contests for 20 years and partners with the Illinois Arts Council.
In Poetry Out Loud, teenagers select, analyze and commit to memory classic and contemporary poems for recitation. Beginning at the classroom level, winners advance to a school-wide competition; then to one of seven regional competitions in Illinois; then to the state tournament (also held in Springfield, on March 2); and ultimately to the national finals in Washington, D.C., in late April.
This year, 21 teachers and 155 students from area high schools are participating. The schools are Southeast High School, Springfield High School and Sacred Heart-Griffin, Eisenhower High School in Decatur, Pawnee High School and Routt High School in Jacksonville.
