Excitement in the air!
This photo says it all – Maine Arts Commission staff is proud to provide the State Poetry Out Loud (POL) Finals at the Waterville Opera House, March 11, 3:00 p.m.
The doors open at 2:30 and is free to the public. At 2:45 the Messalonskee High Schoo Jazz Band, under the direction of music educator Andrew Forster will perform and again during the afternoon. State Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum will share some of his poems. Emcee for the afternoon will be television personality Bill Green. Ten state finalists from throughout the state will recite some of their favorite poems. At the end of the event, one student will be selected to represent Maine as the 2019 State Champ and move on to the National Poetry Out Loud finals scheduled for April 30 in Washington, D.C.
To learn more about POL CLICK HERE!
Poetry Out Loud is organized nationally by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation and administered at the state level by the Maine Arts Commission. It begins in Maine’s schools where school champions are selected to compete in two regional finals at which ten students are ultimately selected to recite at the state finals. One student, the state champion, moves on from the state finals to represent Maine at the national finals in Washington D.C., where students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico will compete for a total of $50,000 in awards and school stipends for the purchase of poetry books.
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