Press Releases

For Immediate Release: October 7, 2011
Elaine Mariner, Director, elaine.mariner@state.co.us

COLORADO CREATIVE INDUSTRIES ANNOUNCES POETRY OUT LOUD: NATIONAL RECITATION CONTEST
High school students in Colorado invited to compete in national poetry recitation

DENVER (November 1, 2011). Presented by Colorado Creative Industries and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud is a program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. From Fall 2011 through Spring 2012, schools are invited to participate in classroom and school wide contests, advancing to a state competition on March 20, 2012. State champions will advance to the National Finals, to take place on May 14-15, 2012, in Washington, DC.

Samuel Opoku from Thornton High School, Thornton, Colorado, was selected as the 2011 Colorado Poetry Out Loud champion and represented Colorado in the 2011 National Finals in Washington, DC, where he finished fourth in the nation. More than 365,000 students from 2,255 high schools took part in the 2010–2011 Poetry Out Loud program.

Poetry Out Loud seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by capitalizing on the latest trends in poetry - recitation and performance. Through Poetry Out Loud, students can master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage. The state champion will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. with a chaperone, to compete for the national championship. The state winner‘s school will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. One runner-up will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library. Poetry Out Loud will award a total of $50,000 in awards and school stipends at the National Finals, including a $20,000 prize for the Poetry Out Loud National Champion.

David Mason, Colorado Poet Laureate and master of ceremonies for the 2011 State Championship, said, “Listening to Colorado high school students recite with passion and skill serves as a powerful reminder of the impact poetry can have in individual lives—to surprise and delight, to enrapture, to inspire and to create understanding and empathy. Most of all poetry, and this competition, bring us closer to our humanity through the spoken word.”

The program offers free, standards-based curriculum materials including print and online poetry anthologies, a teacher‘s guide with sample lesson plans to help instructors teach recitation and performance, a learning recitation DVD, and an audio CD featuring well-known actors such as James Earl Jones. Program materials are available for download at Program materials are available for download on the website, www.poetryoutloud.org, which offers additional resources.

For more information, contact Kelleen Zubick, Poetry Out Loud Colorado Coordinator at Kelleen@zubick.us, 720.253.3337, or visit the Colorado Poetry Out Loud Website.

Contact: Kelleen Zubick, Poetry Out Loud Colorado Coordinator I 720.253.3337 | Kelleen@zubick.us I WEBSITE | FACEBOOK

About Colorado Creative Industries

Colorado Creative Industries is a division of the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade. The agency’s mission is to promote, support and expand the creative industries to drive Colorado’s economy, grow jobs and enhance our quality of life. CCI provides financial and professional assistance to creative entrepreneurs, arts organizations, schools and municipal agencies, and markets Colorado’s creative economy nationally and internationally.