Arts Education Poetry Out Loud celebrates 20 years Poetry Out Loud RI is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country. In Rhode Island, starting in the fall, high schools hold competitions to select a school champion, who will compete at the state level usually in March. In the spring, the state champion competes with other state champions in Washington, D.C. Funded by the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, Registration is currently closed. The program will re-open next fall. If you are a teacher and want to sign up your school for the competition for the 2025/26 school, you can take a look at the past registration form. Downloadable pdf of the registration form for 2024/25 school year. A new updated form will be available next fall. For more information about Poetry Out Loud, contact, Seamus Hames. 2024 Poetry Out Loud R.I. Champion Jennifer Shon, a junior at the Portsmouth Abbey School, was named the 2024 R.I. Poetry Out Loud Recitation Competition. Her winning recitation was "Say Grace" by Emily Jungmin Yoon. Shon, who is from Seoul, Korea, represented Rhode Island in the national competition in Washington, D.C., and won a companion competition. 2023 Poetry Out Loud R.I. Champion Congratulations to Natasha Connolly, R.I.'s Poetry Out Loud Champion and a 2023 Youth Poet Ambassador. Connolly, a junior at Classical High School, competed in the national Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington D.C. where she won a companion competition to Poetry Out Loud for her written original poem, Birdfolk at the End of the World.
