Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest

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For the third time, Piqua Arts Council hosted the annual Poetry Out Loud West Central Ohio Regional Finals on Thursday, February 10th at Upper Valley Career Center in Piqua, OH. Participating students in the 2022 competition were Molly Norman (Newton High School), Amaira Cochran (Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School), Isabella Reyes (Piqua High School) and Hiba Loukssi (Xenia High School). Judges for this year's contest included Countess Winfrey, Jamie Suttle, Kevin Milner, and Nate Funderburg (accuracy judge).

Poetry Out Loud 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. The program starts at the classroom/school or at the local level with an area organization. Winners then may advance to a regional and/or state competition, and ultimately to the national finals. Awards and placements are determined solely by the judges’ scores based on the Poetry Out Loud Evaluation Criteria.

Since 2005, Poetry Out Loud has grown to reach more than 4.1 million students and 68,000 teachers from 17,000 schools and organizations in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.

The winner of our region's finals and moving onto the virtual state competition on March 4, 2022 is Amaira Cochran, a sophomore at Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School in Dayton, Ohio.

Poetry Out Loud is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation, and the state and jurisdictional arts agencies; in our case, the Ohio Arts Council. A big thank you goes out to the Upper Valley Career Center for allowing us to host such a beautiful event in their facility, highlighting the art of poetry and the passion of our local students.