Authored by Jaela Horton
The English Department hosted its sixth school-wide Poetry Out Loud competition at Oliver Ames High School on January 31st, 2019, featuring 11 solid performances by various students. At the end of the evening, Zuleica Monteiro was the runner up to the winner, Aeden Marcus.
Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide competition open to performers of poetry with a grand prize of over 50,000 dollars towards both the school and the individual who wins. At the first level, contestants to enter a school wide competition which takes all contestants and narrows them down to a winner and runner-up. These students then continue on to the state semi-finals.
“I think a few of us heard of the program, but we formalized it six years ago when Dr. Cabral joined the district as assistant superintendent,” Mrs. Marani, the director of the event, explained. “The members of the English department jumped on board, and we were able to hold our first school-wide competition with judges in 2014. We’ve been doing it ever since.”
To advance past the school level, all of the performers must present two poems in front an audience of judges. The judges then choose two people as the winner and the runner up.
“I really enjoyed all of the poems this year,” Mrs. Fogarty, an English teacher who assisted in the event, said. “I think the students are getting better at picking poems that they feel connected to, whether that’s because it is meaningful to their own experiences or because they can identify with an emotion within the poem.”
One quality the judges look for in a performance is a person’s physical presence- someone who shows confidence when performing. To have confidence in their performance, some contestants choose their poem based on firm connection with the poet themselves. With a previous background of the artists, the poem may become more familiar and easier to articulate, as it was for Anna Galer, a Poetry Out Loud performer.
“I chose my poems based on the poems of one of my favorite authors, John Green. He has a podcast that he used to open up every week by reading a short poem. I found a list of these online and … this made choosing a poem much easier and really helped me to narrow my focus.”
Another quality judges are looking for in each contestant is their comprehension of their poem. Some students achieve this by finding a poem which has a meaningful message connected with their own experience in mind. With this first hand view, they will try to give the audience this same experience through their voice, naturally helping convey proper dramatic appropriateness.
“My culture really influenced my poem choice,” Zuleica Monterio, the runner-up confirmed. “Enlightening my audience to a different walk of life inspires me to chose poetry that connects so closely to the essence of my existence.”
Other contestants may have a mood they wish to convey to the audience and choose a poem that encompasses this emotion. A key point judges look for is the flow behind the performance, and a performer who knows the emotion behind the words they speak may have an easier time in their overall performance.
“I was looking for something lighter and I really wanted something funny… I came across ‘’Mr. Darcy’ by Victoria Chang and I thought it might be just the sort of poem I had been looking for,” Aeden Marcus, Poetry out Loud Winner said. “It wasn’t that hard to decide that this poem was fantastic, and it had the lighthearted humor and distinct style that I had been searching for.”
The judges tally up these qualities into an excel spreadsheet then chooses the top two people able encompass the most. The winner and runner up this year have been successfully credited to do exactly that.
Mrs. Fogarty exclaimed, “The winner, Aeden Marcus, had me laughing out loud with her wry rendition of ‘Mr. Darcy.’ She delivered it with such humor and evidence of understanding…. Runner-up Zuleica Monteiro had me teary-eyed with her performance of ‘Bent to the Earth.’ Her delivery was solemn, yet powerful.”
Due to a previously scheduled appointment, Zuleica Montiero will be substituting for Aeden M in the Semi finals on Cape Cod in March 2019.
Mrs Marani said, “ We’ve never advanced a student beyond the state semi-finals … [but] I was very impressed with the dedication and the composition of the students this year.”