Allentown Art Museum Announces Poetry Out Loud:
National Recitation Contest
Regional high school students to compete in national poetry recitation contest
EXCELLENT PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
Allentown, PA — On Thursday, February 21, 2008, 6-8 PM, students from Jim Thorpe Area High School; Northwestern Lehigh High School, New Tripoli; Notre Dame High School, Easton; Freedom High School, Bethlehem; and Pleasant Valley High School, Brodheadsville will compete at the Allentown Art Museum in the regional finals of the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest. The competition is free and open to the public.
Presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation in partnership with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Allentown Art Museum, Poetry Out Loud is a program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. Starting in early 2008, schools in every region of Pennsylvania participated in classroom and school-wide contests. The school winners have advanced to regional competitions and those winners will advance to the state competition on March 12, 2008. State champions will advance to the National Finals, to take place April 27-29, 2008, in Washington, D.C.
Poetry Out Loud seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by capitalizing on the latest trends in poetry—recitation and performance. The program builds on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the immense popularity of rap music among youth. Poetry Out Loud invites the dynamic aspects of slam poetry, spoken word, and theater into the classroom. Through Poetry Out Loud, students can master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.
“We are pleased to partner again with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts on this important program that brings literature to the forefront and gives kids a chance to express themselves artistically,” says Gregory Perry, the Museum’s Priscilla Payne Hurd Executive Director. The Allentown Art Museum is an Arts in Education Partner with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
“Learning great poetry by heart develops the mind and imagination,” said Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “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.”
The NEA and the Poetry Foundation have each contributed funding towards the 2008 Poetry Out Loud program in support of materials, grants, prizes, and the National Finals in April. Additionally, the NEA and the Poetry Foundation provided the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Allentown Art Museum with free, standards-based curriculum materials for use by participating schools. These materials include print and online poetry anthologies, a program guide to help instructors teach recitation and performance, and an audio CD featuring well-known actors and writers such as James Earl Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Alyssa Milano, and N. Scott Momaday. Program materials are available for download on the Web site, www.poetryoutloud.org, which offers additional resources.
Poetry Out Loud Prizes
Poetry Out Loud will award a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends at the National Finals, with at least a $20,000 college scholarship for the Poetry Out Loud National Champion.
Each winner at the state level will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC, 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 in each state will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library.
For further information on Poetry Out Loud, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.
About the Allentown Art Museum
The Allentown Art Museum is a vibrant cultural center offering a world-class collection, an exceptional schedule of exhibitions, programs for visitors of all ages and a distinctive Museum Store. The permanent collection includes superb European Renaissance and Baroque paintings, American paintings and sculpture from the last three centuries, Southeast Asian sculpture, international textiles, decorative arts, and a library designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Art Ways, the Museum’s interactive family gallery, is themed to major exhibitions and offers a “please touch” area where families can enjoy making art together. The Allentown Art Museum is an Arts in Education Partner with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation has embarked on an ambitious plan to bring the best poetry before the largest possible audience. The Foundation recently undertook the first scientific study of American attitudes toward poetry,Poetry in America, which “reveals that students who don't merely read poetry, but also memorize, recite, and write it, are more likely to read it later in life. The finding endorses thePoetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest and other programs that extend poetry instruction at all levels.Poetry in America affirms that early childhood experiences with a wide variety of poetry—not just nursery rhymes and Dr. Seuss—play an important role in developing a lifelong interest in poetry.”
The Poetry Foundation is publisher ofPoetry Magazine. Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912,Poetry Magazine is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Harriet Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in Volume I of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts—both new and established—bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
About the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is a state agency under the Governor’s Office. Its mission is to foster the excellence, diversity, and vitality of the arts in Pennsylvania, and to broaden the availability and appreciation of those arts throughout the state. In 2004, the agency was named among government’s top 50 “Best and Brightest” in the Innovations in American Government Awards, a national competition recognizing superior and unique programming initiatives within the public sector.
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