{"id":2549,"date":"2016-02-05T15:08:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T23:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getlitfestival.org\/?p=2549"},"modified":"2016-02-05T15:08:08","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T23:08:08","slug":"standing-room-only-for-poetry-out-loud-regional-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/standing-room-only-for-poetry-out-loud-regional-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 Poetry Out Loud Regional Finals are in the Books!"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Tony Payne<\/em><\/p>\n

\"POL<\/a>
2016 Finalists Lillian Cooley & Wesley Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Bartlett<\/a> was standing-room-only Wednesday night, as over a hundred people gathered to watch eleven students from high schools around eastern Washington compete in this year\u2019s Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition. The finalists from the evening, Wesley Thomas of Quincy High School and Lillian Cooley of Liberty Bell High School, will move on to the Washington State Finals at the Broadway Center for the Arts in Tacoma next month for the chance to compete in the National Finals. Get Lit! congratulates Lillian and Wesley and wishes them the best of luck in the next rounds!<\/p>\n

The students took the stage \u00a0to recite two poems each, and their selections ranged from the contemporary (like Tony Hoagland\u2019s \u201cPersonal<\/a>\u201d and Jane Hirshfield\u2019s \u201cThe Promise<\/a>\u201d) to the classic (such as John Donne\u2019s \u201cDeath, be not proud<\/a>\u201d and Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cSonnet 18- Shall I compare thee to a summer\u2019s day?<\/a>\u201d). Under the stage lights and the rapt eyes of the audience, each brought his or her poems off the page and to life.<\/p>\n

While poetry and competition might not seem like they go hand in hand, three local poets\u2014 Thom Caraway<\/a>, Ellen Welcker, and Ginger Ewing\u2014 were on hand as this year\u2019s judges to evaluate the students\u2019 performances on five categories: physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding, and overall performance. The evening would not have been possible without the judges, so Get Lit! has got to give a big thanks to Thom, Ellen and Ginger for supporting the next generation of poets!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0912_Edit\"<\/a>
Emcee Aileen Keown Vaux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking of local poets without whom this event would not have been possible, Kate Peterson, poet and instructor at EWU, is also Poetry Out Loud Coordinator, and she\u2019s been working tirelessly since the fall to coordinate POL throughout eastern Washington and to make sure the finals went off without a hitch Wednesday\u2014 which they did! The finals were emceed by another local poet and EWU instructor, Aileen Keown Vaux<\/a>, who put her engaging personality and strong voice to good use in keeping the festivities moving.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0935_Edit\"<\/a>
Poetry Out Loud Coordinator Kate Peterson & Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One local poet made a surprise appearance as the participants\u2019 final scores were calculated: Washington\u2019s new Poet Laureate Tod Marshall<\/a>! He was on hand to offer advice on how these budding poets might themselves become Poets Laureate some time in the future, but the humble Gonzaga University professor claimed that based on the performances he\u2019d seen that night, each of the high-schoolers was closer to poetic greatness than he’d been at their age. Marshall was also kind enough to invite each of the participants to recite their poems at a reading he was giving the next night at Gonzaga, and three of them did! Get Lit! thanks Tod Marshall for his support of Poetry Out Loud and his continual support of the arts!<\/p>\n

The poets had been practicing since the fall with teachers who\u2019d incorporated Poetry Out Loud into their English curriculum. It\u2019s thanks to their dedication that poetry has become a living experience for not just these eleven finalists, but for classrooms of students throughout eastern Washington. For all their hard work and continued support of POL, Get Lit! thanks the teachers who bring Poetry Out Loud into the lives of young people.<\/p>\n

The event was generously sponsored by the gorgeous Bartlett<\/a>, which in its two-plus years in Spokane has created a wonderful space for local artists\u00a0and nationally-recognized touring acts, and also by Auntie\u2019s Bookstore<\/a>, who donated gift certificates to each of the participating students, and by Rocket Bakery<\/a>, who donated gift cards to the teachers who\u2019d brought Poetry Out Loud into their classrooms.<\/p>\n

The future of the Inland Northwest arts scene is bright, thanks to the fine, young poets who stood under the bright lights Wednesday and all of the people and local businesses supporting them. Get Lit! Programs is proud to be the eastern Washington Poetry Out Loud coordinator, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts<\/a> and the Poetry Foundation<\/a>, administered in Washington by the Washington State Arts Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tony Payne The Bartlett was standing-room-only Wednesday night, as over a hundred people gathered to watch eleven students from high schools around eastern Washington compete in this year\u2019s Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition. The finalists from the evening, Wesley Thomas of Quincy High School and Lillian Cooley of Liberty Bell High School, will move … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":924,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":[],"_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}