POETRY OUT LOUD
2019 Hawaii State Champion and National Top 9 Finalist, Maggie Odom
2018 Hawaii State Champion and Second Place National Finalist, Nicholas Amador
2017 Hawaii State Champion and Second Place National Finalist, Nicholas Amador
2016 Hawaii State Champion and Third Place National Finalist, Nicholas Amador
Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and Honolulu Theatre for Youth Announces
Erisan Awaya as the 2020 Poetry Out Loud State Champion
From a competitive field of 10 students across Hawai‘i, Erisan Awaya from Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu, won the title of 2020 Poetry Out Loud™ Hawai‘i State Champion at the state finals held in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday, March 1, 2020.
“I am honored to have won this year’s competition, and am truly thankful for all the support,” Erisan shared. “While fairly new to poetry, the performing arts have always been my passion since a young age. Commitment, dedication, and perseverance are a few words that come to mind in my poetry out loud journey. Poetry has given me another avenue to express myself, while relating to the master poets of years past. Their words, although may be hundreds of years old, are still relatable in today’s world full of technology, impersonal communication, and fading humanity.”
Erisan Awaya received an award of $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC, to compete at the Poetry Out Loud national finals. Unfortunately due to COVID-19, this year’s national finals have been cancelled. Erisan’s school also received a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry materials. The Poetry Foundation provides and administers all aspects of the monetary prizes awarded and travel arrangements to the Poetry Out Loud national finals. Visit poetryoutloud.org for more details on rules and eligibility.
Erisan Awaya Reciting Round 1 Poem
“On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance”
by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
“On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance” from Oceanic. Copyright © 2018 by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.)
The first runner-up was Taylor Cozloff from Kamehameha Schools Kapālama in Honolulu, Hawaii. Third place winner was Kolten Gusman from Kauai High School. Guest judges presided over the competition, including Mark Branner, Terence (Terry) Liu, Laurel Nakanishi, and Maya Soetoro-Ng. Judges evaluated student performances on criteria including physical presence, voice and articulation, accuracy, and evidence of understanding.
Poetry Out Loud Program Information
A partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and the state arts agencies, 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 to high schools across the country. Beginning at the classroom level, winners advance to a school-wide competition, then to the state competition, and ultimately to the national finals in Washington, DC. Since the program began in 2005, more than 3.8 million students and 60,000 teachers from 16,000 schools across the country have participated in Poetry Out Loud.
Additionally, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation provide free, standards-based curriculum materials which teachers may choose to use in their classrooms, including an online poetry anthology containing more than 1,100 classic and contemporary poems, a teacher’s guide, lesson plans, posters, and video and audio on the art of recitation. Schools are welcome to download these resources at poetryoutloud.org.