Elk Grove High School Senior Wins Poetry Playoffs
Posted April 25, 2006 (updated 5/1/06)
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Student Advances to National Finals in Washington, D.C.
Ken Huffman, a senior at Elk Grove High School in Sacramento County, is the winner of the California State Capital Finals of the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest. The student took first place in a field of 21 others in order to earn the right to advance to the national championship in Washington, D.C. on May 16, 2006 where $50,000 in scholarships and school prizes will be awarded.
Ken recited O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman, The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt, and Detroit, Tomorrow by Philip Levine.
The finals were held on Friday, April 21, in the auditorium of the Secretary of State's Office in downtown Sacramento.
The California Arts Council implemented this pilot initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), partnering with the Sacramento County Office of Education in promoting and supporting the contest in the Sacramento region. The NEA, the Poetry Foundation and the California Arts Council hope to expand Poetry Out Loud throughout California to encourage high school students to learn poetry through performance and competition.
Modeled like the national spelling bee, the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest began in local high school classrooms, with winners advancing to school-wide, then regional competition. Capital regions countrywide are participating in regional playoff competitions.
Poetry Out Loud is part of an effort to bring literary arts to students — a critical need in our schools, according to a 2004 NEA report, Reading At Risk, that found a dramatic decline in literary reading. Through the rhythm of poetry, students can learn the language arts elements of classic literature and the skills of literary analysis. The program seeks to develop student’s lifelong appreciation for literature and the arts through this process.
More than 250,000 students nationally will take part in Poetry Out Loud this year.
| Student Name | School | Poem |
|---|---|---|
| John Paul Laing | Bella Vista High School | Song of the Powers by David Mason |
| Rejoy Armamento | Bradshaw Christian School | Chicago by Carl Sandburg |
| Svetlana Romaniuc | Cordova High School | To The Ladies by Lady Mary Chudleigh |
| Diana Tapia | Elinor Lincoln Hickey High School | When I Was Young and Fair by Queen Elizabeth |
| Ken Huffman | Elk Grove High School | O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman |
| Eric Lopez | Estrellita High School | Cold Blooded Creatures by Elinor Wylie |
| Katie Newsome | Galt High School | Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen |
| Crystal Fairrington | Grant High School | We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar |
| Emma Graham | Heritage Peak High School | Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe |
| Stephanie Maldonado | Hiram Johnson High School | To The Ladies by Lady Mary Chudleigh |
| Malaysia Anderson | Inderkum High School | Still I Rise by Maya Angelou |
| Zuleika Becerra | Kennedy High School | Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen |
| Mercedes Daniel | Las Flores High School | I Am by John Clare |
| Candace Nicholas | Luther Burbank High School | Frederick Douglas by Robert E. Hayden |
| Marianne Candela | Mesa Verde High School | Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas |
| Destiny Robbins-Brown | Monterey Trail High School | Mother to Son by Langston Hughes |
| Yuliya Prilepina | Natomas Charter School | The Painter by John Asbery |
| Haley Hauder | Pleasant Grove High School | I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth |
| Christy Cunningham | Rio Americano High School | Still I Rise by Maya Angelou |
| Samantha Ruiz | Rio Linda High School | Romance by Claude McKay |
| Emily Ann White | Sacramento Waldorf High School | Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare |
| Ashleigh Yaya | San Juan High School | General William Booth Enters into Heaven by Vachel Lindsay |
Judges:
- Al Young, California Poet Laureate
- Julia Connor, Sacramento Poet Laureate
- Susan Hildreth, California State Librarian
- Dan Stone, NEA Program Director
- Brandon Cesmat, Chair of California Poets in the Schools
- Hon. Roger Niello, California State Assembly
