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Students Compete With Poetry Out Loud

poetry out loud
Courtesy of Elementz
Poetry Out Loud participant Mi'Cayla Hendrix-Pitts is a senior at Mount Notre Dame High School.

Cincinnati Edition takes a look at Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry competition where high school students compete by reciting poetry that showcases their public performance, memorization and recitation skills.

The competition, created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, helps students build confidence while learning about history and the world around them through the study of diverse poets and poems.

Credit Courtesy of Piqua Arts Council
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Courtesy of Piqua Arts Council
Zurie Pope.

In a pre-recorded conversation, Cincinnati Edition spoke with Chiquita Mullens Lee, the Ohio Arts Council's Poetry Out Loud state coordinator; Mi'Cayla Hendrix-Pitts, a senior at Mount Notre Dame High School; Zurie Pope, a junior at Piqua High School; Jamie Lee Morris, manager of education and outreach at Elementz; Jordan Knepper, executive director of the Piqua Arts Council; and Alyssa Hansen, a singer-songwriter and former Miss Ohio who was a judge in the Western Ohio Regional competition.

Hendrix and Pope will go on to compete with other regional champions at the Poetry Out Loud competition on March 6. Winners chosen at the regional competition will get an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. and the chance to win $20,000 at the national Poetry Out Loud competition.

Listen to Cincinnati Edition live at noon M-F. Audio for this segment will be uploaded after 4 p.m. ET.

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Michael Monks brings a broad range of experience to WVXU-FM as the host of Cincinnati Edition, Cincinnati Public Radio's weekday news and information talk show.