Rosie Neogy named Poetry Out Loud County Champion

Last week, 12 high school students from Mariposa County participated in the county final for the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest.

Poetry Out Loud is an arts education initiative created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Poetry Foundation that encourages the nation’s youth to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition.

The contest is open to currently enrolled students in grades 9-12.

Contestants are required to select and memorize three poems from the Poetry Out Loud official anthology, which they recite in front of a panel of local judges.

Each recitation is evaluated on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding, overall performance and accuracy.

The top 10 performers from a school-wide contest progress to the county final.

The winner of this year’s County Champion title was Rosie Neogy, who delighted the audience with passionate and compelling performances of “Memorial Wreath” by Dudley Randall, “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Militants to Certain Other Women” by Katharine Rolston Fisher.

Judges were particularly impressed with the way that Rosie authentically connected with historical narratives, brought them to life and made them relevant to a contemporary audience.

Neogy will now go to compete in the state final in Sacramento in March. Runner-up performers were Harmony Buckner and Phoebe Davis.

The Mariposa County Poetry Out Loud competition is coordinated by the Mariposa County Arts Council.

In the weeks leading up to the contest, students were guided by their teachers, Brooke Dobson, Annika Zrebski and Kate Hall with additional coaching by local poet Megan Levad Beisner, author of Why We Live in the Dark Ages and What Have I to Say to You.

This year’s judges were Amanda White, Brandee Mcmichael, Maureen McCormick and Sunny Braselton.

The Arts Council is an incorporated not-for-profit organization created to promote and support all forms of the cultural arts, for all ages, throughout Mariposa County and is supported in part by the County of Mariposa, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the California Arts Council, a state agency.