Poetry Out Loud

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by Editor-in-Chief Marisa Kaplita This past Tuesday on February 14th during period six 15 BHSers battled it out on the stage; Aria Jones, Henry Jin, Ben Shao, Christina Smith, Chrissy Beaulac, Kaity Robbins, Pompeo Mazella, Brianna DeNegris, Jennifer Lassen, Rachel Hanchuruck, Michelle Caron, Meglin Bodner, Jenny Flynn, Bryanna Willaby, and Ziqi Wang were all participators of the Poetry Out Loud Competition. For this competition all the students picked a poem from a list on this website: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/ ranging from different writers, lengths and styles.  Once a poem is chosen it is the competitors job to memorize and resight the work.  But its not a memorization competition, its a battle of expression and emotion.  Each student put his or her own flare into his or her work and learned to feel all the emotions the poet was trying to convey to his audience. Mrs. Baker, 11th grade English teacher and Yearbook director, was the organizer for the event and stood by the stage encouraging the students as they read their poems and helped them if they were stuck on a line.   The judges where Mr. Miller and Mr. Matthiessen, both English teachers, who assessed each performance for physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, accuracy, and overall performance. Brianna DeNegris came in first place with her poem, and Rachel Hanchuruck was runner up.  Unfortunately, it seems that since both students are involved in the Spring Musical, which is around the same time as the State Competion, there is a chance that neither will be able to perform at state level.  In the event of a scheduling conflict, Jenny Flynn, who won 3rd place will go and represent our school. All the students did a fantastic job filling the shoes of their poets and they all presented their poems with moxie and excitement!