2025 POETRY OUT LOUD Comes To Neil Morgan Auditorium at San Diego Central Library In February
San Diego Regional Finals take place this year on February 4th at 5:00pm.
The Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, managed in California by the California Arts Council and regionally, by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture in association with Write Out Loud, will present POETRY OUT LOUD, a national poetry recitation competition for high school students.
San Diego Regional Finals take place this year on February 4th at 5:00pm. The event is free and the public is encouraged to join our student participants and their families at the Neil Morgan Auditorium at San Diego Central Library. The event will be live-streamed.
Poetry Out Loud encourages high school students to learn about great poetry—both classic and contemporary—through memorization, performance, and competition. Since the program began in 2005, more than four million students across the country have participated in Poetry Out Loud. For the 2025 Poetry Out Loud, students will present their recitations of works selected from the Poetry Out Loud Anthology of more than 1,100 poems. Performances are judged on criteria including voice and articulation, evidence of understanding, and accuracy. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation have created free, standards-based curriculum materials to support Poetry Out Loud including a teacher’s guide, lesson plans, an online anthology, posters, and video and audio on the art of recitation. Write Out Loud offers in person and virtual poetry examination and performance workshops for students
The Poetry Out Loud competition has been administered locally by WRITE OUT LOUD since 2014. Under WRITE OUT LOUD’s direction, the program has grown from serving one school to four schools this year. Students compete at the school and/or organization level and regional finalists compete for a chance to represent San Diego at the California State Finals.
At this year’s Regional Finals, poems will be presented by finalists representing: Academy of Our Lady of Peace, Canyon Crest Academy, Pacific Ridge High School, and Valley Center High School.
Judges for POETRY OUT LOUD include Poet/Creative Writing teachers Brandon Cesmat and Gina M Jackson, San Diego luminaries Paola Capó-Garcia, Jane Muschenetz, and Michael Klam, as well as North Coast Repertory Theatre Associate Artistic Director Brian Mackey.
The San Diego winner, who will continue on to the State Finals in Sacramento on March 16-17, 2025, will be announced at the end of the February 4th competition. The winner of the State competition will advance to the National Competition in Washington, DC May 5-7, 2025.
Write Out Loud is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 with a commitment to inspire, challenge and entertain by reading literature aloud for all ages. In addition to coordinating Poetry Out Loud for high school students, WRITE OUT LOUD provides the community with seven other core programs serving over 30,000 people annually. These include PoeFest - a celebration of Edgar Allan Poe and literature of the macabre, each October; Stories for Seniors; StoryBox Theatre (kamishibai) for toddlers through teens; Let Your Voice be Heard (a poetry writing program) for grades K-12; Read Imagine Create for teens and adults; Ripples From Walden Pond, a one-man play about Henry David Thoreau; World Kamishibai Forum, serving an international audience. Write Out Loud also provides the community with a full season of Story Concerts.
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