DeKalb School of the Arts Student Wins 2022 Poetry Out Loud State Championship
Wednesday, March 16th, 2022
The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) this week announced that Amaya McGee, a sophomore at DeKalb School of the Arts in Avondale Estates, Georgia, took home first prize in the 2022 Poetry Out Loud state championship. A student at Booker T. Washington High School, Justice Carswell, was runner-up in the competition.
This year’s final spring competition was conducted through livestreaming video by the nine students participating in the state finals. The state champion will go on to represent Georgia at the national finals, which will also be held virtually through recorded video this year.
“Poetry Out Loud not only introduces students to the breadth of contemporary poetry, it also gives them confidence in expressing themselves,” said Tina Lilly, Executive Director of Georgia Council for the Arts. “Students who learn to explore the words of all different types of writers will become empathetic and well-rounded adults who are able to see the world from different perspectives.”
Poetry Out Loud is a national program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation, which encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization and recitation of the written word. Georgia’s Poetry Out Loud champion will receive $200 from the NEA. McGee’s school will also be presented with a $500 certificate that will go toward new books. As Poetry Out Loud runner-up, Carswell will receive $100 from the NEA, and $200 for new books for her school.
“One thing that I learned from Poetry Out Loud that surprised me is how much Poetry positively affects others,” said Georgia Poetry Out Loud Winner Amaya McGee. “How simple words have the ability to turn into beautiful works of art.”
Started in 2005 as a pilot program in Chicago and Washington, D.C., Poetry Out Loud has grown to involve millions of students from across the country.
This is the 14th year that the Atlanta History Center has been selected by Georgia Council for the Arts to coordinate the state’s Poetry Out Loud competition. Georgia’s 2022 participation included:
- 60 schools in 39 counties
- 6,000 students
- 300 educators
“Georgia Poetry Out Loud was able to conduct a full program this year despite the pandemic and new variants that caused us to cancel the in-person state finals competition,” said Emily Cobb, Poetry Out Loud State Coordinator at Atlanta History Center. “The students worked so hard to memorize and recite the poems and I think that hard work shows in the state finals competition video. I am always amazed every year by the hard work and determination the students put into Poetry Out Loud. But this year, they really blew me away with how they were able to conduct themselves during the competition season.”
If your school would like to participate in Poetry Out Loud next year, please contact Emily Cobb at ECobb@AtlantaHistoryCenter.
