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For Immediate Release
Contact: Rodger Martin, New Hampshire POL Direc tor: rodgerwriter@verizon.net
603-525-4715, 30 North Road, Hancock , NH 03449

Catherine O’Brian, New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, Arts in Education Coordinator: Catherine.R.O'Brian@dcr.nh.gov, 2 ½ Beacon St, 2nd Floor, Concord , NH 03301  

New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud Project

Concord, NH, August 30, 2007…As the 2007-2008 school year opens, high school students around the state will have an opportunity to join the almost 4,000 of their counterparts who last year slammed and jammed with poets like Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, X.J. Kennedy, and Anne Bradstreet. The New Hampshire State Council on the Arts will be holding its third state-wide Poetry Out Loud festival this year, which will culminate in the selection of a New Hampshire high school student to champion poetry the New Hampshire way at the national finals held in Washington, DC., April 27-29, 2008.

“ New Hampshire has always been fertile ground for poets and they are well represented in the Poetry Out Loud Anthology with Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon, Robert Frost, and Maxine Kumin for starters. New Hampshire’s 2007 State Poetry Out Loud champion Teal Van Dyke’s version of Allen Ginsberg’s ‘A Supermarket in California,’ was included in WGBH-TV’s film about the program which has been seen all over the nation,” said Rodger Martin, direc tor of New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud Project. (The film can be viewed online at www.poetryoutloud.org/news/nationalfinals.html )

Martin also said The Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts will again provide a guidebook, CDs and a print anthology, plus access to an on-line anthology of almost 500 poems chosen from five hundred years of English poetry, at no charge to interested public, private and parochial school teachers. These resources are designed to help teachers create a flexible, three-week curriculum in the oral tradition. The curriculum involves encouraging students to commit a classic English poem to memory and then, using their public speaking skills to practice “performing” the poem aloud. The competition begins in each classroom then proceeds to a school championship, and then school champions from each school compete to become the New Hampshire State Champion. The New Hampshire State Poetry Out Loud Champion will receive $200, (the champion’s high school library will receive $500 for the purchase of poetry books) and an all-expense paid trip to Washing ton, DC, along with one chaperone, as he or she competes for the national title. In Washing ton, over $50,000 in college scholarships ands prizes are available to the top finishers.

Bow High School’s Teal Van Dyck represented New Hampshire in Washing ton DC in April 2007 and was awarded second place performing "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood.

Catherine O’Brian of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts indicated that the increase in participating schools and the number of students competing makes it clear that the Poetry Out Loud program goals to encourage the intense study of classic poetry are being achieved.

“In our first year,” noted Martin, “we had almost 2,000 students participate. Last year almost 4,000 joined in. We hope to reach 5,000 this year.” According to the NEA website (www.poetryoutloud.org) in addition to the winner’s awards, a runner-up in each state will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library.

Details about the program have been mailed to all high school principals and Language Arts direc tors in New Hampshire. If you are a New Hampshire high school teacher and your school has interest in the program, please contact Rodger Martin, 30 North Road, Hancock, NH 03449 or by e-mail at rmartin1@keene.edu.

There is an informational meeting at The New Hampshire State Council on the Arts (2 1/2 Beacon St., Second Floor, Concord, NH) on Wednesday, Oc tober 10, at 4 p.m. (please RSVP by Oct. 3 to Catherine O’Brian, NHSCA, Catherine.R.O'Brian@dcr.nh.gov) Deadline for completing the application to participate is October 15, 2007.

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Last updated: August 30, 2007