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Bosco recited Meg Day’s "Portrait of My Gender as [Inaudible]"; Ann Taylor and Jane Taylor’s "The Star"; and Joy Harjo’s "Perhaps the World Ends".
After Morin and Bosco, the next highest scorers were Elio Haag of Bellows Free Academy - St Albans; Lily Hutcheson of Burr and Burton Academy; and Sam Leggett of Woodstock Union High School Middle School.
Nineteen schools across Vermont registered to bring the national Poetry Out Loud program to their classrooms in 2022, reaching more than 2,500 students. Students were selected by their teachers as school champions and advanced to participate in the statewide competition, which was emceed by spoken word poet Rajnii Eddins.
Poetry recitations were evaluated by the judges, using these criteria: physical presence, voice and articulation, evidence of understanding, dramatic appropriateness, accuracy, and overall performance.
All 2022 judges were distinguished poets and performers. They were Sarah Audsley, poet; Susan Haefner, actor and teaching artist; John Hadden, actor and teaching artist; and Vera Escaja Heiss, former Vermont Poetry Out Loud champion.
State champion Morin receives $200 and advances to the national finals where $50,000 in awards and school stipends will be distributed. The state champion’s school receives $500 for the purchase of poetry materials. First runner-up Bosco receives $100, with $200 for her school.
The 2022 National Semifinals will take place on Sunday, May 1, with the top nine semi-finalists advancing to the National Finals on June 5. Both the semifinals and finals will stream live at arts.gov.
Also announced today as a part of Poetry Out Loud, the Vermont Arts Council partnered with the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center's Scholastic Writing Awards program to hold the Original Poetry Awards. This year, three poems from three students are recognized with a $100 cash award. The Original Poetry Award winners are as follows:
- Samantha Aikman from Mt Mansfield Union for her poem, "To the Fig Tree on Kolocep Island"
- Mars Sell from Woodstock Union for their poem, "My Dad Went to Europe and All I Got Was a Wooden Giraffe"
- Brooks Balkan from South Burlington High School for his poem, "Their Pumpjack"
To support the state’s Poetry Out Loud program each year, the Arts Council funds poetry recitation and creative writing workshops led by dynamic teaching artists and local poets.
Vermont Poetry Out Loud is supported by the Poetry Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state of Vermont. Since the program began in 2005, more than four million students across the country have participated in the national program. The Poetry Foundation provides and administers the monetary prizes.
For more information about Vermont Poetry Out Loud, visit https://www.vermontartscouncil.org/programs/poetry-out-loud.
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