16 Regional Winners Advance from 6,800 Participants in 62 Illinois High Schools Statewide
ILLINOIS—(ENEWSPF)—March 6, 2014. The Illinois Arts Council Agency is pleased to announce Illinois’ 2013-2014 Poetry Out Loud State Final, featuring recitations by sixteen regional contest winners. The event will take place on Friday, March 14, 2014, beginning at 1:00 p.m. in Springfield’s Hoogland Center for the Arts. Attendance is free, open to the public, and accessible.
Six thousand eight hundred ten students from 62 Illinois high schools participated in this year’s Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, a free program created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation to encourage youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance. The Illinois Arts Council Agency implements Poetry Out Loud statewide as a collaborative project with seven regional not-for-profit partners.
The Illinois Poetry Out Loud State Champion will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in April, to compete for the national championship. The state champion’s school will also receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. The state’s Poetry Out Loud runner-up will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library. At the National Poetry Out Loud Finals in Washington, DC, fifty-three Poetry Out Loud champions from every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands will compete for a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends.
The sixteen regional finalists competing in the Illinois Poetry Out Loud State Final on March 14, 2014 in Springfield are:
|
REGION |
STUDENT |
SCHOOL |
|
Central Illinois |
Annabelle Emuze |
Southeast High School (Springfield) |
|
Central Illinois |
Annie Kefalas |
St. Teresa High School (Decatur) |
|
Chicagoland – City |
Grace Anderson |
University of Chicago Lab School (Chicago) |
|
Chicagoland – City |
Daisy Ochoa |
Taft High School (Chicago) |
|
Chicagoland – Suburbs |
Monica Labelle |
Wheaton-Warrenville South High School (Wheaton) |
|
Chicagoland – Suburbs |
Abigail Warhus |
Evanston Township High School (Evanston) |
|
Eastern Illinois |
Cedric D.B. Jones |
Champaign Central High School (Champaign) |
|
Eastern Illinois |
Jonlyn Miller |
Champaign Central High School (Champaign) |
|
Northern Illinois |
Whydler Moore |
Jefferson High School (Rockford) |
|
Northern Illinois |
Asia Ward |
Auburn High School (Rockford) |
|
South Central Illinois |
Taylor Robinson |
Edwardsville High School (Edwardsville) |
|
South Central Illinois |
Elixxa Warner |
Alton High School (Alton) |
|
Southern Illinois |
Ally Payne |
Clay City High School (Clay City) |
|
Southern Illinois |
Kristin Doty |
Agape Christian School (Marion) |
|
Western Illinois |
Marley DeVoss |
Orion High School (Orion)) |
|
Western Illinois |
Shelby Hoffman |
Orion High School (Orion) |
For an in-depth look at the national Poetry Out Loud program, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.
For information regarding Illinois’ regional and school Poetry Out Loud competitions in your local area, contact the Illinois Arts Council Agency’s partnering organization that services your geographic area.
|
Region |
Not-for-Profit Partner |
Contact Person |
Contact Information |
|
Central Illinois |
Springfield Area Arts Council |
Sheila Walk |
217-753-3519 |
|
Chicagoland |
Literature for All of Us |
Liz McCabe |
847-404-4390 |
|
Eastern Illinois |
40 North/88 West |
Amanda Baker |
217/351-9841 |
|
Northern Illinois |
Rockford Area Arts Council |
Sharon Nesbit-Davis |
815/847-5382 |
|
South Central Illinois |
Jacoby Arts Center |
Eric Stauffer |
618-310-4118 |
|
Southern Illinois |
Carbondale Community Arts |
Nancy Stemper |
618/457-5100 |
|
Western Illinois |
Quad City Arts |
Tracy Alan White |
563-579-7630 |
Source: illinois.gov
