Poetry Out Loud Recording

Live Streamed

If you missed the Maine Poetry Out Loud (POL) State Finals that were held on Monday, March 11 you can see the BRTV recording that was live streamed. The state finals opened with the Messalonskee Jazz Band under the direction of music educator Andrew Forster.

Archived on the Maine Arts Commission Facebook page.

Joao Victor, 2019 Maine Poetry Out Loud Champion

Bill Green, who served as the emcee for the state finals, provided a POL segment on his weekend show Bill Green’s Maine News Center. It’s a wonderful summary of the event – VIEW IT HERE. Thank you Bill for doing such a great job!

The Maine Arts Commission is creating Maine videos to provide resources for students and teachers participating in the POL program. The FIRST VIDEO is available on Pace. It includes three Maine high school students, Allan Monga, Deering High School, Portland, the 2018 Maine State Champ and 1st runner-up from 2019, Emma Lombardo, Westbrook High School, a State Finalist for the 2018 and Wyatt Bates, Yarmouth High School, Regional Finalist in 2018 and 2019.  More videos will be created and all of them will be available on the Maine Arts Commission Poetry Out Loud webpage.

Poetry Out Loud Resources

Coming soon

Brian Evans-Jones, teaching artist and poet created a set of “exercises” that will be made available to Maine students and teachers to be used to help prepare them for the Poetry Out Loud (POL) program and for teaching and learning poetry. Recently students, poet and film makers converged on Deering High School in Portland to tape the exercises.

Maine’s 2018 POL champ Allan Monga, senior from Deering and 2018 POL state finalist Emma Lombardo, senior from Westbrook High School provided their POL experiences to demonstrate multiple recitation ideas. They are both amazing young people – I was so impressed with their thoughtfulness during the taping.

Brian directed the individual video clips, Ryan Leighton, Maine Arts Commission marketing & communications director and film maker Cody Mitchell taped hours of footage. It will be edited to create a set of resource videos that will be made available at the beginning of December 2018.

This is an amazing opportunity for Maine! It was great to see the learning taking place for all involved. Thank you to Deering High School principal Gregg Palmer for making the arrangements at the school.

Poetry Out Loud Finalists

Yahoooo for high school students and poetry

State Final, Free and Open to Public, at Waterville Opera House March 14

AUGUSTA, ME–The art of performance and spoken word is alive and well in Maine high schools, as 39 individual students competed in two Poetry Out Loud Regional Finals last month.  The Maine Arts Commission, which administers the poetry competition at the state level, is pleased to announce the top 10 finalists who will compete in state finals at the Waterville Opera House on March 14 at 3:00 p.m.

Congratulations to the following finalists:

Northern Maine Regional Champions: The northern regional poetry recitation contest final was hosted by Hampden Academy.

• Lydia Caron, Grade 12, Bangor High School
• Katherine Kemper, Grade 12, Camden Hills Regional High School
• Lauren Dodge, Grade 12, Lee Academy
• Hannah Lavenson, Grade 12, Messalonskee High School
• Lauren Farmer, Grade 10, Rangeley Lakes Regional Schools

Southern Maine Regional Champions: The southern regional final was hosted by Westbrook Middle School.

• Allan Monga, Grade 11, Deering High School
• Abbie vanLuling, Grade 12, Gorham High School
• Richard Hilscher , Grade 12, North Yarmouth Academy
• Emma Lombardo, Grade 11, Westbrook High School
• Wyatt Bates, Grade 11, Yarmouth High School

After three rounds of competition, one state finalist will be named the overall winner and advance to the national competition, where s/he will compete for a total of $50,000 in awards and school stipends, as well as a $20,000 scholarship.

The Maine Poetry Out Loud state finals are March 14 at the Waterville Opera House. The doors will open at 2:30 p.m. for a 3 p.m. performance start. The event is free and open to the public, who are encouraged to attend. It will also be broadcast and streamed live throughout Maine in collaboration with Boothbay Region Television on the BRTV station and through Facebook Live.

For more information about the state and national finals, please visit Maine Arts Commission: Poetry Out Loud 2017 or contact Argy Nestor, Maine Arts Commission Director of Arts Education at argy.nestor@maine.gov or 207-287-2713.