Thursday night January 31st, the Downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library played host to a regional competition for high school students, but this was no football or basketball game. English Teacher Kelly Grayum from Liberty Bell High School in Winthrop Washington explained the event:
"Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation contest put on across the United States. Here in Eastern Washington it's coordinated by Spokane Arts. Each school that participates can send a winner from their school on to the regional competition here in Spokane. Winners go on to Tacoma for the state competition, and from there can move on to Washington, DC and compete against other states."
In 2013, Mead High School Student Langston Ward went on to win the National Championship, but in recent years, the small towns of Okanogan County have distinguished themselves as something of a regional poetry powerhouse. In last year’s regional competition, both finalists who moved on to the state finals came from the small county in North Central Washington. One reason may be that both the Winthrop Valley Schools and Okanogan High Schools have hired a poetry performance coach, a local poet and performer named Thome George.
"Methow Arts Alliance is a non-profit that funds art, not only in the Methow, but in the greater Okanogan Valley, so they're not just dealing with poetry but fine arts and also performing arts. They have me as an artist in residence doing performance coaching," George said. "I come in early into the classroom, after they've chosen their poems but before they've really started their memorization. I have some techniques that help them remember the whole poem and not pieces of the poem. And then as they advance I can work with them on their presence, the timing, the tempo, all those kinds of things."
Of the eight regional competitors at Thursday’s event, three hailed form Okanogan County, all coached by Thome George. After an introduction by local poet and MC Aileen Keown Vaux, the recetations got underway. Each student recited two poems, from memory, and were judged on six criteria: Physical Presence, Voice and Articulation. Dramatic Appropriateness, Evidence of Understanding, Overall Performance, and Accuracy. The regional judges for Eastern Washington included Spokane Poet Laureate Mark Anderson, Young Adult Author Stephanie Oakes, and Spokane Arts Commissioner E. J. Iannelli.
Poems included works by Robert Frost, read by Naomi Hertz from Lakeside High School and Wendell Berry, read by Mean high school’s Dominick Sretenovic.
One of Thome George’s students, Madeline Luther of Okanogan High School chose to recite “All This and More” by the contemporary American poet Mary Karr.
After two rounds, the judges' scores were tabulated and the winners announced. The finalists chosen to move on to the state competition were Anna Kolarsky from the Oaks Christian Academy in Spokane Valley and Madeline Luther from Okanogan High School.
After the awards and applause, I caught up with Madeline Luther, a confident and effusive junior to ask her secret to success and what it meant to represent her small town.
"Well I have my poetry coach, which is a big help, and I've got two great English teachers. And my dad actually wrote poetry in college, so he's a big help too," Luther said. "It feels really good to be able to say 'I'm from Okanogan and Okanogan has won twice.' It's a big deal because we're such a small school in the middle of nowhere."
Now it’s on to the state finals which will be held in Tacoma on March 2nd to see if that Okanogan pride can carry her even further. For Spokane Public Radio from the Eastern Washington Regional finals of Poetry out Loud, I’m Chris Maccini.