LHHS senior advances to national competition
Sydney Bayless, a senior at Lake Hamilton High School, recently became the school’s first winner of the Arkansas Poetry Out Loud competition to qualify for the national event next month.
Bayless bested 12 other students, including previous state winners, March 4 in the Center for Humanities and Arts on the Pulaski Technical College campus in North Little Rock. She won a $200 cash prize and her coach, Lake Hamilton Junior High English teacher April Geraci, received a $500 grant for the school to purchase poetry books and materials for her classroom.
The feat enables Bayless and Geraci to travel
for free in April to Washington, D.C., for the national championship. Bayless is the daughter of Tandy Hood, who will travel with them to D.C.
“I am most excited to be competing, in general, at a national level, because it is something I am doing individually,” Geraci said. “I have Mrs. Geraci coaching me, but it’s not necessarily a team event. I’m on the dance team and we compete, but it is a team effort. If someone messes up, it’s on the whole team.
“I’m not carrying anyone else. I am carrying myself. Anything I accomplish or do not accomplish is on me. That’s no one else’s fault. When I get there, I am going to be the one responsible for my actions. If I do not deliver, that’s on me.”
The national competition will be held April 24-26 at the Lisner Auditorium at The George Washington University with winners from all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Participants will be able to attend a welcome dinner, a meet-andgreet session with a poet and a congressional breakfast with national legislators.
Poetry Out Loud was created by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation to encourage high school students to memorize and perform renowned poems. Students in grades 9-12 can participate. The event has grown to reach more than 3 million students and 50,000 teachers from more than 10,000 schools throughout the country since 2005.
The state competition is presented by the Arkansas Arts Council in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, The Poetry Foundation, the Arkansas Department of Education and Pulaski Tech. Bayless won the school competition for the first time in 2016 and placed third in North Little Rock, ahead of two previous state winners.
Madeleine Windel, of Deer High School, won the 2016 Arkansas competition as a sophomore. Windel placed second in this year’s state event to win a $100 cash prize and a $200 grant for her school.
Bayless first became interested in Poetry Out Loud when she watched her niece perform in the school competition two years ago. Participants are judged based on their recitation of poems.
“I came to her performance at the school level and I thought it was really nifty,” Bayless said.
Each Poetry Out Loud competition includes three to five judges who score the performers based on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding and overall performance. Bayless said participants need to find poems with depth and range to succeed, but also comprehend the complexities of the work.
“Even though a poem shows depth, you need to be able to fully understand the depth of it,” Bayless said.
Another judge focuses entirely on accuracy. Points can be deducted for minor inaccuracies such as confusing pronouns, pluralizing a word, replacing a word with a similar word and confusing the order, as well as skipping, repeating or adding words. Larger deductions apply for reciting line or stanzas out of order, repeating lines or omitting portions of a poem.
Students select their own poems for the school competition. At least one of their two poems must be under 25 lines and at least one must be selected from before the 20th century.
Geraci is in her second year as director of the school competition. Fellow English teacher Julie Mullings helped start Poetry Out Loud in the district several years ago and previously served as the school director. The director coaches the school winner for state and nationals.
School winners perform three poems at state. Bayless and Geraci opted to drop one of her two school poems because they were similar. They said the process for selecting poems to perform can be extensive.
“What we needed was something stronger and more difficult,” Geraci said. “Even though they do not judge on difficulty, we learned from last year that it definitely helps with the score if it is a more difficult poem.”
Bayless and Geraci both analyzed and annotated various poems separately and then together in their first few practice sessions. Selections of the poems enables them to fine tune other aspects of the performance.
“It really is a process,” Geraci said. “You do not just show up and start repeating it over and over again and call it a day. She put in a whole lot of work.”
Bayless then practices reciting her poems in front of other students at Lake Hamilton. She said she became comfortable with public speaking in church.
Mullings also helped her realize her ability and enjoyment in public speaking. She now presents at many public events as secretary for the Lake Hamilton chapter of Future Farmers of America for the past two years and as the reigning Garland County Fair queen.
“I have always liked public speaking and I still get nervous to do it in front of people,” Bayless said. “I think it’s just a way of life. You are going to be nervous no matter what.”
Bayless and Geraci both fell ill in the weeks before the state competition. Geraci missed four days of school the week before, limiting potential practice opportunities and Bayless missed several days of school the week of the competition. They were finally able to practice again two days prior to state.
The Arkansas Arts Council works with state winners every year and hal evans (sic) will advise Bayless and Geraci in preparation for the national championship. He attends the championship each year with the state’s representatives.
Nationals are divided into three regions. Bayless will compete in Region 2 with winners from other states in southern central and midwest America.
Every qualifier recites two poems until the top five in each region advance to the next round, where they perform their final poems. The top three from each region advance to the finals.
All nine finalists are guaranteed to receive at least
$1,000. The grand prize is
$20,000, plus another school grant.
The nine finalists perform two poems again and the top three are announced before a dinner break. The final three students will recite their last poem to determine the winner.
Bayless said she plans to grow her own personal business selling essential oils before she embarks on an
18-month mission trip after she turns 19. She is planning the Aspire Lantern Festival for Jan.
13 through the Garland County Fair Association.
The proceeds will benefit victims of sex trafficking. Bayless said she hopes to coordinate with an organization such as Partners Against Trafficking Humans. She said she plans to study a medical field or business in college after she returns from her mission.