Classical High School student wins state’s ‘Poetry Out Loud’ contest

Published on Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Providence, RI – A senior at Classical High School, Astrid Jhonnieli Santos Adames, was named the Rhode Island 2026 champion of the state’s Poetry Out Loud Recitation Competition on March 7 at the Greenwich Odeum.  She won her stand-out recitation with the following poems: Aunt Sue’s Stories, Langston Hughes; Saturday’s Child, Countee Cullen; and Our Own Twelve Anti-Suffragist Reasons, Alice Duer Miller.

Adames moves onto the regional competition starting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 28, Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. The competition will be streamed at Poetry Out Loud | National Endowment for the Arts.The winners of the regional competitions will proceed to the national finals on Wednesday.

During the R.I. State Championship, Portsmouth Abbey School’s Peter Devaney placed second; La Salle Academy’s Arianna Roy was third place; and honorable mentions went to Teeghan Riley, Central Falls High School, and Esra Erginbas, Moses Brown School.

The state finalists included:

• Gretchen Dechant, Providence Country Day School.
• Isabella Ramirez, East Providence High School.
• Hunter Riley D’Elia, Johnston High School.
• Holly Shilale, Chariho Regional High School.
• Jose Antonio Montano Bejarano, Central High School.

“On behalf of RISCA, congratulations to Astrid, all the school finalists, teachers and mentors, who participated in this year’s Poetry Out Loud. We wish Astrid the best of luck in the national competition,” said Todd Trebour, Executive Director of RISCA. “Our arts agency has been a longtime partner with the NEA— having participated in all 21 Poetry Out Loud competitions. These students dedicated themselves to months of preparation for this key arts education program, and we are inspired by their display of bravery, skill and passion.”

Locally, more than 1,300 R.I. students, 31 teachers and 10 schools from throughout the state participated in the arts education competition. Prior to the championship the competitors spent most of the school year studying poetry through learning, memorization and performance. 

This year marks the competition’s 21st anniversary. Out of the 157,000 students who participated in Poetry Out Loud state championships, 55 have advanced to the 2025 National Finals. Since its inception in 2005, this arts education program has reached more than 4.5 million students.

Thank you to the Poetry Out Loud R.I.’s coordinator Damont Combs; emcee and teaching artist Marlon Carey; ambassador Patricia Hawkridge; guest poet Rene Manuel Ramos; content judges Rachel Briggs, V. Raffini and Phoenyx Williams; accuracy judge Mark Binder, tabulator Toni Rose, and prompter Cyrus Busteed. Also, thank you to the Providence Athenaeum, Rhode Island Center for the Book and Greenwich Odeum Staff.

The winner of the Poetry Out Loud Rhode Island championship receives $200 with a $500 stipend to the winning school for the purchase of poetry materials. Second place wins $100, with $200 stipend for the school’s library.

Poetry Out Loud, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with state and jurisdictional arts agencies and managed by Mid Atlantic Arts, is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools throughout the country.

The program also provides free educational materials to teachers and organizers, including an online poem anthology.

Students memorize and recite poems they select from an anthology of more than 1,200 classic and contemporary poems. Winners then may advance to a regional and/or state competition, and ultimately to the National Finals. Since the program began in 2005, more than 4.5 million students and 85,000 teachers from 21,000 schools and organizations across the nation have participated in Poetry Out Loud. For more, visit PoetryOutLoud.org.

Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide and a catalyst of public and private support for the arts. By advancing opportunities for arts participation and practice, the NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States. Learn more at Arts.gov.
Mid Atlantic Arts supports artists, presenters, and organizations through unique programming, grant support, partnerships, and information sharing. Created in 1979, Mid Atlantic Arts is aligned with the region’s state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. Mid Atlantic Arts combines state and federal funding with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to nurture diverse artistic expression while connecting people to meaningful arts experiences within our region and beyond. To learn more about Mid Atlantic Arts visit www.midatlanticarts.org.