Students will express Poetry Out Loud in competition at MJC

Stanislaus County high school students will go “Out Loud” on poetry.

The Stanislaus County finals of the eighth annual Poetry Out Loud competition will gather students from regional high schools to vie for a chance to go to the state competition. The local event is at Modesto Junior College on Tuesday.

The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center took over sponsorship this year of what is part of a national recitation contest created by the National Endowment for the Arts.

All high school students in the county were invited to participate. This year, there will be 20 students taking the stage from Enochs and Modesto high schools, Turlock’s Pitman High and Oakdale High School, according to Nancy Haskett, who is coordinating the event with Gary Thomas and Gillian Wegener.

Each student will go before a panel of judges to recite two poems. The students will be judged on physical presence, voice/articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding and overall performance during the evening event. An accuracy judge will follow along – word for word, noting any deviations from the original piece – and students lose points during their presentation if the poem is recited inaccurately.

The judges will select a county champion as well as a runner-up to advance to the state competition, which will be held in Sacramento on March 12-13. Tuesday’s event is free, and begins at 6 p.m. at the MJC Little Theater.

This story was originally published February 2, 2017 at 11:47 AM with the headline "Students will express Poetry Out Loud in competition at MJC."