Regional Finals for Poetry Out Loud Announced

Champaign - 40 North | 88 West - Champaign County’s Arts, Culture and Entertainment Council -  will host the regional contest for Poetry Out Loud at the Champaign Public Library on Saturday, March 1st, 2008, from 9:30am. The event is free and open to the general public.

Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest is a free national program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Poetry Out Loud encourages youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance, which help students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary heritage.

Starting at the classroom level in November of 2007, participating teachers received free multimedia curriculum materials – a poetry anthology, audio guide, teachers’ guide, posters, and comprehensive website, www.poetryoutloud.org, all aligned to national standards – augmenting their regular poetry curriculum with poetry recitation and a classroom-level competition. School-level recitation champions competed to advance to the level of the regional competition. The winner of the regional will advance to state and then national levels. In 2007, Poetry Out Loud awarded more than $100,000 in prizes to students and schools at the state and national levels.

Four high schools is east central Illinois are participating in the program and will send their winning contestants to Saturday’s regional final.

The state-level championship takes place in Springfield on March 6, with the National Finals being held in Washington, D.C., from April 27-29, 2008.

For the 2007-2008 competition, The Illinois Arts Council partnered with seven local organizations throughout the state to administer the Poetry Out Loud program.

Further detail regarding the Poetry Out Loud program is available online: www.poetryoutloud.org.