Poetry Out Loud

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The Poetry Out Loud: Recitation Contest was created in 2006 by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation. The contest was created to increase awareness in the art of performing poetry, with substantial cash prizes being awarded to schools that participated as well as representatives from each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia.

The contest features a list of about 400 poems for students to choose from. In some cases, qualifiers were held at a scholastic level with each student performing two poems. The finalist from each school went to the state level to perform three, and the state finalists later performed the same three poems in Washington D.C. during the second week of May, 2006.

[edit] 2006 Winners

Jackson Hille of Columbus Alternative High School in Ohio is the National Champion. He received a $20,000 scholarship courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts. Other honors went to Teal Van Dyck of Bow High School in New Hampshire, who won second place and a $10,000 scholarship. Kellie Anae of Mid-Pacific Institute in Hawaii won third place and a $5,000 scholarship.^[1]