Tarike Osuobeni, a junior, has won the Westerville Central High School Poetry Out Loud competition. She will compete at the state finals on Saturday, March 8, at Ohio Dominican University. She is the third member of her family to excel in this contest. Several years ago her older sister, Tarela, advanced to the state level, and last year her brother, Taribo, won the Ohio challenge and competed at nationals in Washington, D.C.
Before advancing to the state battle, Osuobeni will attend a School Champions’ Workshop on February 22 at the State Library of Ohio. State level champions receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC, to compete for the national championship, which will be held this year from April 29-30. The school of each state champion receives $500 for the purchase of poetry books.
Central’s Poetry Out Loud contest coordinators were educators Bridget Cargin, Amy Hamrick, James Grannis, and Scott Paynter.
The competition, presented in partnership with the Ohio Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition.
Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country. Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure. 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. Some 375,000 students from more than 2,000 high schools nationwide took part in the 2012–2013 Poetry Out Loud program.
At Westerville Central, students recited works they selected from an anthology of more than 700 classic and contemporary poems. Judges evaluated performances on criteria including voice and articulation, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty, and accuracy. Teachers introduced poetry recitation in the classroom using materials created by the National Education Association and the Poetry Foundation, including a standards-based Teacher’s Guide, a website, a Learning Recitation DVD, and a CD featuring poetry recitations by well-known actors and writers such as Anthony Hopkins and Rita Dove.
To learn more about the Poetry Out Loud competition, please visit www.poetryoutloud.org.