2016 marks El Dorado County’s seventh year of participating in Poetry Out Loud—a national arts education program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. The program is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and state and regional arts agencies.

Throughout the month of January and into the first week of February, students from eight El Dorado County high schools will be delving into the literary canon—studying, interpreting, and memorizing classical and contemporary poetry—their efforts ending in a schoolwide Poetry Out Loud competition where they will perform before a panel of trained Poetry Out Loud judges. 

Poetry Out Loud school winners will then go on to vie for the title of Poetry Out Loud County Champion at the county finals held at the Imagination Theater on the evening of Tuesday, February 9. In past years, students have performed before a full house, with audience members and judges riveted by the students’ powerful, bold recitations. 

This year’s panel of county judges includes G. Weston DeWalt, co-author of THE CLIMB, and Corbin Gomez, alumnus of Oak Ridge High School and the California State Poetry Out Loud Champion in 2012. The evening’s emcee will be EDAC’s executive director, Terry LeMoncheck. “I’m thrilled and honored to be introducing this remarkable gathering of young performance artists,” says LeMoncheck. “Their presence on stage is the culmination of hours and hours of close and careful work with their poems, their teachers, and the visiting poet. I’m prepared to be astonished.”

The El Dorado County champion moves on to the California State Poetry Out Loud Competition on February 28-29 in the Senate Chamber in Sacramento. There, he or she will compete against county winners from across the state, in the hopes of winning the state title. State champions receive an award of $200 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. in early May, 2016, to compete in the National Finals. In 2014-2015, some 365,000 students from more than 2,300 high schools took part in the Poetry Out Loud program. 

The El Dorado County Poetry Out Loud Competition is free and open to the public; doors open at 6:30 pm, with the evening’s program to begin promptly at 7:00. The Imagination Theater is located at 100 Placerville Drive, on the county fairgrounds. 

For more information on Poetry Out Loud and the February 9th El Dorado County competition, contact Alisyn Gularte at 530.295.3496 or [email protected]. General information can be found at http://www.cac.ca.gov/ (click on the Initiatives tab) or visit www.poetryoutloud.org. Reporters interested in more information about the statewide program can contact Jason Jong, Arts Program Specialist, at (916) 322-6338 or [email protected].  

El Dorado Arts Council empowers artistic vision at all stages of development, promoting a vibrant community, both culturally and economically, and supporting all art forms.  EDAC promotes and encourages local artists and organizations throughout El Dorado County by providing advocacy, education, programs, and services. EDAC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is funded in part by sponsors and the community; tax-deductible contributions sustain artistic discovery and the opportunity to learn, connect and share.