‘A difficult year’ as annual poetry competition held via Zoom
LAKE COUNTY >> On one of the few sunny days in Lake County lately, a zoom meeting for the annual poetry competition, Poetry Out Loud (POL), took place Saturday hosted by the current Lake County poet laureate, Georgina Marie, and the executive director of Lake County Arts Council, Barbara Clark.
Pre- COVID, POL took place at the Soper Reese Theater in Lakeport. Most high schools in Lake County participated. This year only Middletown High School participated with three student competitors; Emily Maccario, Leslie Chairez and Karen Espinoza.
“The pandemic created many challenges so it is understandable that the entire state had a lower response rate this year for POL,” said Marie.
According to the POL website “Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self- confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life. Poetry Out Loud is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation, and the state and jurisdictional arts agencies.”
Marie listed who helped w ith the competition; Shelby Posada, judge, who has been a judge for a number of years for POL, Lance Giroux a local poet and runner-up for the current poet laureate term, Jennifer Mills Kerr, local poet and creative writing teacher, Jessyca Lytle, the accuracy judge, a local poet and educator, Marie, was the tallier, Michele Krueger, the prompter and student coach along with Hilary Devine. Krueger is the Lake County coordinator for California Poets in the schools. Devine teaches English at Middletown High School.
Cash prizes of $100, $50 and $25 will be awarded to the first, second and third place winners. The winner may advance to a regional and/or state competition, and ultimately to the national finals.
There were two rounds where each contestant recited their chosen poems. During the breaks to check the accuracy of each competitor’s recitation, the 23 to 25 zoom participants were encouraged to ask questions of the three contestants.
In the first round, Maccario recited “April Midnight” by Arthur Symons (https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/april-midnight/).
Leslie Chairez recited “Cartoon Physics, Part 1” by Nick Flynn ( https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/cartoon-physics-part-1/).
Karen Espinoza recited “Love Song” by Dorothy Parker (https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/ lovesong/).
The second round of poems were; Maccario reciting “Carnival” by Rebecca Lindenberg ( https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/carnival/). Chairez reciting “I Know, I Remember, But How Can I Help You?” by Hayden Carruth (https:// www. poetryoutloud. org/ poem/i-know-i-rememberbut-how- can-i-help-you/).
Espinoza reciting “On The Death Of Anne Bronte” by Charlotte Bronte (https://www. poetry outloud. org/poem/o n-thedeath- of-anne-bront/).
Each of the three young women had to memorize their chosen poems. Maccario said, “Memorization is hard for me. It took three weeks to memorize each poem. I’m glad I got up here and did it anyway.”
Espinoza said, “I managed to memorize them (the poems) in a couple of days. I probably struggled the most with learning how to put the emotion into the poem and how to perform it. I feel like that was harder for me.”
Chairez said, “Memorizing is a little easier for me. Like Karen, it’s harder to put in the emotion and how to act it out without acting it out.”
After the votes were tallied, Marie announced the winners.
Third place; Leslie Chairez. Second place; Karen Espinoza. First place; Emily Maccario
The zoom participants gave a rousing applause to
the competitors and Maccario’s mother burst into her daughter’s zoom cube to give her a big hug.
Devine, who has been a key element in POL for quite some time, proudly applauded her students as did coach Krueger. Everyone, including the previous poet laureate and former coordinator for POL Richard Schmidt, congratulated Marie for a successful Poetry Out Loud. Schmidt said, “Glad to see at least one school hung in there. Kudos to Hilary for her tenacity. Hopefully get to skip zoom next time.”
“This year was difficult for all of us,” said Clark. “I’m glad Lake County Arts Council was able to provide something for students and public to enjoy. This is an example of artistic passion. It shows the resiliency and creativity will always show through. It was not our preferred method of performance, but it exceeds the alternative of having nothing at all. We cannot wait until we can all meet again in person to enjoy each other and our arts. Until then we can’t let our inner artist down.”
“This year was difficult for all of us. I’m glad Lake County Arts Council was able to provide something for students and public to enjoy. This is an example of artistic passion. It shows the resiliency and creativity will always show through. It was not our preferred method of performance, but it exceeds the alternative of having nothing at all. We cannot wait until we can all meet again in person to enjoy each other and our arts. Until then we can’t let our inner artist down.”
— Barbara Clark, executive director of Lake County Arts Council