Colony High senior is ‘Poetry Out Loud’ state winner

PALMER — Colony High School senior Tong Thao was chosen as the first-place Alaska winner March 19 during the National Poetry Out Loud state competition in Juneau.

The Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment of Arts created Poetry Out Loud in 2006 to increase awareness of students in all 50 states awareness of the fine art of performing spoken poetry. Each state sends one winning representative for the national level competition.

“I hadn’t really expected that I was going to win state,” Thao said. “I was very surprised!”

Each student must recite three poems during the contest to show their flexibility on the different interpretations of each poem.

Poetry Out Loud contestants are judged on their physical presence on stage, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, an applicable level of difficulty with the poem, evidence of understanding and the overall performance given. Judges evaluate the contender’s completion of the poem and announce the winner at the end of the contest.

Students in grades nine through 12 are eligible to participate in Poetry Out Loud, with an inclusion of eighth-grade students taking high school courses. Each school involved must have a Poetry Out Loud contest with a minimum of two students to be able to be chosen to go to state. More than a dozen students at Colony competed.

“I’ll admit it was somewhat nerve-wracking to be in front of so many people,” Thao said. “It felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest!”

The state’s winning competitor receives a trip to Washington, D.C., with a chaperone to compete in the nationals. A total of $50,000 is put into awards and stipends. The state winner’s school library will be given $500 for the purchase of poetry books.

The whole competition experience has benefitted Thao in many ways, he said.

“I mean, if anybody wants to go try out for Poetry Out Loud, I say go for it! It had helped me with being able to speak in front of audiences, especially larger ones,” Thao said. “All it takes is hard work and practice, practice, practice.”

The National Poetry Out Loud competition is April 28-30 in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit poetryoutloud.org.

Claudette Burkett is a junior at Colony High who enjoys welding and writing for the Colony student news website, the Knightly News, at knightlynews.info.