For Immediate Release: February 24, 2010
Contact: Jeff Morgan
Public Relations
515.281.3858
Jeff.Morgan@iowa.gov
IAC announces finalists for Iowa Poetry Out Loud contest
State champion advances to National Finals in Washington, D.C.
(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Nineteen Iowa students will gather in Des Moines next week to compete for a state championship and a trip to the 2010 Poetry Out Loud National Finals in Washington, D.C., where $50,000 in scholarships and prizes will be awarded.
The Iowa Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest will be at 1 p.m., Saturday, March 6, 2010, at the State Historical Building, 600 E. Locust Street in Des Moines. The contest is free and open to the public and will include poetry recitations by each student competitor. Iowa’s Poet Laureate, Mary Swander, will offer a presentation as part of the program. Created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, the Poetry Out Loud contest in Iowa is presented by the Iowa Arts Council.
“We are very grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation for supporting this event in Iowa through the Iowa Arts Council,” Department of Cultural Affairs Director Cyndi Pederson said. “The program helps students foster a greater appreciation for poetry as an art form, and it offers them an opportunity to develop public speaking and presentation skills that will last a lifetime.”
Poetry Out Loud began as a pilot project in 2005 and has expanded to include all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Students participate at classroom, school and state levels for the right to compete in the National Finals.
This year, IAC partnered with three arts organizations – Arts on Grand in Spencer; Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls; and Lamb Arts LTD in Sioux City – to promote poetry in Iowa.
The organizations provided professional development and workshop opportunities for teachers and students last fall, and appointed local professional poets to be available for classroom and school residencies. Participating POL schools could apply through a simple funding program to bring poets to their classrooms by visiting www.iowaartscouncil.org.
Last year, Mia Pierson of Roland-Story High School represented Iowa at the National Finals. She returns to the state finals this year as a junior to defend her title.
Iowa’s other past state champions include Emily Mortvedt of Roland-Story High School in 2008, Spencer Gilbert of West Des Moines Valley in 2007 and Ashley Baccam of Des Moines East in 2006.
Teachers can visit www.poetryoutloud.org or contact IAC’s Dawn Martinez Oropeza at dawn.oropeza@iowa.gov for more information. The 2010 Poetry Out Loud National Finals will be April 25-28, 2010, in Washington, D.C.
Following is this year’s list of state qualifiers:
(City/Town)
(Student)
(School)
(Poems/Authors)
(Teacher)
(Principal)
Ames
Krista Klocke
Ames Homeschool Assistance Program
Caged Bird by Maya Angelou
The Death of Allegory by Billy Collins
When I was Fair and Young by Queen Elizabeth 1
Suzanne Klocke
Shelly Larson, Ames Homeschool Assistance Program Coordinator
Ankeny
Haley Nixt
Ankeny High School
Song of the Powers by David Mason
A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General by Jonathon Swift
Actaeon by A.E. Stallings
Kelcy Lofgren, Tracy Tensen
Brenda Colby
Cedar Falls
Jyothi Dhanwada
Northern University High School
Chicago by Carl Sandburg
When I was Fair and Young by Queen Elizabeth I
Gitanjali 35 by Rabindranath Tagore
Ashley Jorgensen
Jim Stichter
Des Moines
Dmitri McDonald
Central Academy
Alone by Edgar Allen Poe
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind by William Shakespeare
It Couldn’t Be Done by Edgar Allen Guest
Denis Hildreth, Catie Miller
Dennis Johnson
Des Moines
Champagne Harrington
North High School
Sonnet XVIII: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? by William Shakespeare
Father, Son and Holy Ghost by Audre Lorde
The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks
Mark Rixner
Dr. Vincent Lewis
Grinnell
Nora Tjossem
Grinnell High School
Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith
The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet
Spring and Fall: To a Young Child by Gerald Manly
William Rudolph
Kevin Seney
Johnston
Megan Albers
Johnston Middle School
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson
The Enigma by Anne Stvenson
Tamara Andrews
Brian Carico
Kingsley
Burgundy Zellmer
Kingsley-Pierson High School
The Obligation to be Happy by Linda Pastan
We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Happiness by Jane Kenyon
Jayne Vondrak
Scott Bailey
Marshalltown
Gwen Morrison
Marshalltown High School
Sign by George Starbuck
The Flea by John Donne
Elegy on Toy Piano by Dean Young
Susan Fritzell
Bonnie Lowry
Mason City
Alexandra Dunlay
Mason City High School
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden
Time Does Not Bring Relief: All Have Lied by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Mary Cusack Alexander
Douglas Kennedy
Sioux City
Dana Sly
North High School
Sonnet XVIII: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? by William Shakespeare
Litany by Billy Collins
The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden
Crista Limoges
Linda Smoley
Norwalk
Chelsea Frazer
Norwalk High School
Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Harlem by Langston Hughes
To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick
Martha Davis
Dale Barnhill
Sioux City
John-Emmett Mahon
PeaceMakers Academy
A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Douglas R. Daniels
Donna Smith
Story City
Mia Pierson
Roland-Story High School
Conversation by Ai
Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Dona Josefina Counsels Dona Conception Before Entering Sears by Maurice Kilwein Guevara
Denise Biechler
Steve Schlatter
Tama
Amber Kaufman
South Tama County High School
Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
How do I Love Thee by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
Sharon Campbell
James Tekippe
Waukee
Rachel Carlson
Prairieview School
Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
The Orange by Wendy Cope
Jacki Pleggenkuhle
Juley Murphy-Tiernan
Sponsored by the Waukee Area Arts Council
Waukee
Aaron Calvin
Waukee High School
Bright Star by John Keats
A Poem With One Fact by Donald Hall
One Art by Emily Bishop
Jacki Pleggenkuhle
Dr. Jody Ratigan
Sponsored by the Waukee Area Arts Council
Waukon
Katie Riese
Waukon High School
Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson
Barbara Fretchie by John Greenleaf Whittier
“Hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson
Kathy Hay
Dan Diercks
West Des Moines
Kaitlin Olson
Valley High School
Gitanjali 35 by Rabindranath Tagore
Cartoon Physics, Part 1 by Nick Flynn
In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr. by June Jordan
Karen Downing
Dr. Vicky Poole
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The Iowa Arts Council is a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and works to enrich the quality of life for Iowans through support of the arts. Funding for the Iowa Arts Council and its programs is provided by the state of Iowa and the National Endowment for the Arts. More information at www.iowaartscouncil.org.