NEA offers high school students poetry

IFACCA/Artshub, 17 November 2005,USA

The National Endowment for the Arts has created a new poetry competition for high school students in America. The competition, Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, will begin next year, and will see high school students competing in each state capital region. The finals will take place in Washington D.C. on 16th May 2006. With the NEA’s recent report on reading, it was decided that one way to tackle the decline in literary reading amongst youth would be to foster readers through recitation and performance. The new competition aims to accomplish this by building on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form (slam poetry and spoken word events are becoming increasingly popular). Through the competition, students can also gain important public speaking skills and improve their self-confidence. "Learning great poetry by heart develops the mind and imagination," said NEA Chairmann, Dana Gioia. "It isn't just an arts program. By immersing themselves in powerful language and ideas, the students will develop their ability to speak well, especially in public. This is a skill they will use in the workplace and the community for the rest of their lives." "The public recitation of great poetry," said John Barr, President of the Poetry Foundation, "is a way to honor the speaker, the poem, and the audience all at once. Poetry Out Loud brings new energy to an ancient art by returning it to the classrooms of America." A pilot phase of the competition was presented last school year, with heats in Washington D.C. and Chicago. More than 4000 students participated, and in the 2006 competition, it is estimated that 250 000 students will take part. The NEA has contributed $500 000 towards the 2006 event, with grants to state agencies to help implement the program in at least 10 to 30 high schools in each state capital region. For more information, CLICK HERE.

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