Poetry Out Loud - Regional Remembered, reposted
A glitch prevented me from revising the original Regional Remembered post, so I am reposting it here.
Poetry Out Loud (POL) is a national enterprise that promotes the memorization reciting of poems among high school students. In so doing, it fosters appreciation of the language, understanding of poetry as an art, and better understanding of how to communicate orally. Their website, intended for educators, but good reading for everyone, is www.poetryoutloud.org I became involved with POL when Springfield Area Arts Council assistant director Penny Wollan-Kriel asked me to be a judge for the April 5 Regional Contest, held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in lyrical downtown Springfield.
. . . . The contests invited students tp select poems they intended to recite from a large list, with texts of poems, at the POL website. Included there, but not recited by any Regional or State contestant, were two Vachel Lindsay poems: and General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.
. . . . Before I attended a poetry open mic (my spelling, and it seems to have caught on) which was sponsored by Poets & Writers Literary Forum (of Springfield) in 1994, I assumed that all poems shared at these events were memorized, so I memorized the three I planned to share there before heading out to Barnes & Noble. After all, that's how we shared poems in Miss Ruppelt's Fifth Grade class at Blackhawk school in 1958, and it was how Nick Lindsay shared his father Vachel's poems at a 1962 Springfield High School assembly as I watched, enraptured from a front row, center aisle balcony seat. And that's how I shared every poem I presented at a P&WLF activity for three years. Memorizing poetry has never been a big deal with me, no more so than putting on shoes when I go to church or not picking my nose so much when I'm eating dinner with a girlfriend's parents. My experience with P&WLF showed me that while memorizing is fine, it's not part of the social imperative at these gatherings. I also learned that it's a heckovalot better to read a poem well, with suitable intonation and sensitivity, from a piece of paper than it is to share it poorly memorized and stumbling around the poem like a drunken etymologist. Even so, even after I started reading my poems from paper occasionally at open mics, I recited almost every Vachel Lindsay poem I shared with an audience. Only exceptions were his The Chinese Nightingale and Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan. When I've a featured poet/speaker given center stage for 45 to 60 minutes, I still memorize every poem I share. Poetry Out Loud was "right up my alley,"and I was delighted to help with the Springfield Regional.
. . . . Southeast High School English instructor Joni Paige carried the ball for Springfield. I understand other high school English departments were invited to participate, but interest elsewhere had been zilch. Southeast had a competition to select students to recite at the Regional Contest. The winners, who came to Hoogland April 5 were Aren Dow, Brittany McDermott, Chris Pugh, Lauren Richmond and Kaitlyn Sanders. Students from Southeast later explained to me that only seniors were declared winners during the intramural contest, even though at least one non-senior had recited better than those who were selected to come to Hoogland. Re my reaction to that news, I consider the organization of things Joni Paige's deck to deal. I was impressed with the students who came to the Regional Contest, and have no argument with how the cards were dealt.
. . . . . The contest consisted of two rounds with each student reading one poem in each round. Two winners were determined from the total scores.
. . . . The elements of presentation by which the poems were judges were exquisitely appropriate, almost perfection. There were four grade levels: weak, fair, good and excellent, indicated by number scores of 1 through 4 respectively in the following criteria: volume, speed, voice inflection, posture and presence. evidence of understanding, pronounciation, gestures, eye contact, level of difficulty and overall performance. I will write separate blog columns regarding those elements. A missing fifth element is addressed in my blog about the State Contest.
. . . . . Master of Ceremonies was David Farrell, the "Don Pardoe" of the WUIS program State Week in Review. In Farrell's banter between recitations, he mentioned how Aren Dow had revealed in his bio that he was competing so that he could beat Kaitlyn Sanders at something. Dow's confidence was matched by his ability as a reciter. He and Kaitlyn were the two students judged winners of the Regional Contest. The other students were almost equally impressive. Every one of them deserve congrats for their interest in the American language, their considerable effort engaged in memorizing their poems, and their apparent calm heads when appearing, some for the first time, alone on a stage with a bunch of strangers gaping up at them like so many cod in a fish market.
. . . . . Kudos to everyone involved with the Regional Contest!
Poetry Out Loud (POL) is a national enterprise that promotes the memorization reciting of poems among high school students. In so doing, it fosters appreciation of the language, understanding of poetry as an art, and better understanding of how to communicate orally. Their website, intended for educators, but good reading for everyone, is www.poetryoutloud.org I became involved with POL when Springfield Area Arts Council assistant director Penny Wollan-Kriel asked me to be a judge for the April 5 Regional Contest, held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in lyrical downtown Springfield.
. . . . The contests invited students tp select poems they intended to recite from a large list, with texts of poems, at the POL website. Included there, but not recited by any Regional or State contestant, were two Vachel Lindsay poems: and General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.
. . . . Before I attended a poetry open mic (my spelling, and it seems to have caught on) which was sponsored by Poets & Writers Literary Forum (of Springfield) in 1994, I assumed that all poems shared at these events were memorized, so I memorized the three I planned to share there before heading out to Barnes & Noble. After all, that's how we shared poems in Miss Ruppelt's Fifth Grade class at Blackhawk school in 1958, and it was how Nick Lindsay shared his father Vachel's poems at a 1962 Springfield High School assembly as I watched, enraptured from a front row, center aisle balcony seat. And that's how I shared every poem I presented at a P&WLF activity for three years. Memorizing poetry has never been a big deal with me, no more so than putting on shoes when I go to church or not picking my nose so much when I'm eating dinner with a girlfriend's parents. My experience with P&WLF showed me that while memorizing is fine, it's not part of the social imperative at these gatherings. I also learned that it's a heckovalot better to read a poem well, with suitable intonation and sensitivity, from a piece of paper than it is to share it poorly memorized and stumbling around the poem like a drunken etymologist. Even so, even after I started reading my poems from paper occasionally at open mics, I recited almost every Vachel Lindsay poem I shared with an audience. Only exceptions were his The Chinese Nightingale and Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan. When I've a featured poet/speaker given center stage for 45 to 60 minutes, I still memorize every poem I share. Poetry Out Loud was "right up my alley,"and I was delighted to help with the Springfield Regional.
. . . . Southeast High School English instructor Joni Paige carried the ball for Springfield. I understand other high school English departments were invited to participate, but interest elsewhere had been zilch. Southeast had a competition to select students to recite at the Regional Contest. The winners, who came to Hoogland April 5 were Aren Dow, Brittany McDermott, Chris Pugh, Lauren Richmond and Kaitlyn Sanders. Students from Southeast later explained to me that only seniors were declared winners during the intramural contest, even though at least one non-senior had recited better than those who were selected to come to Hoogland. Re my reaction to that news, I consider the organization of things Joni Paige's deck to deal. I was impressed with the students who came to the Regional Contest, and have no argument with how the cards were dealt.
. . . . . The contest consisted of two rounds with each student reading one poem in each round. Two winners were determined from the total scores.
. . . . The elements of presentation by which the poems were judges were exquisitely appropriate, almost perfection. There were four grade levels: weak, fair, good and excellent, indicated by number scores of 1 through 4 respectively in the following criteria: volume, speed, voice inflection, posture and presence. evidence of understanding, pronounciation, gestures, eye contact, level of difficulty and overall performance. I will write separate blog columns regarding those elements. A missing fifth element is addressed in my blog about the State Contest.
. . . . . Master of Ceremonies was David Farrell, the "Don Pardoe" of the WUIS program State Week in Review. In Farrell's banter between recitations, he mentioned how Aren Dow had revealed in his bio that he was competing so that he could beat Kaitlyn Sanders at something. Dow's confidence was matched by his ability as a reciter. He and Kaitlyn were the two students judged winners of the Regional Contest. The other students were almost equally impressive. Every one of them deserve congrats for their interest in the American language, their considerable effort engaged in memorizing their poems, and their apparent calm heads when appearing, some for the first time, alone on a stage with a bunch of strangers gaping up at them like so many cod in a fish market.
. . . . . Kudos to everyone involved with the Regional Contest!
posted by Job Conger | 11:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home