Congratulations to Erisan Awaya, the 2020 Poetry Out Loud Hawai‘i State Champion! Erisan recited “On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson, and “Golden Retrievals” by Mark Doty. The text of the poems are available online: Poetry Out Loud. Erisan is a student Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu.
Judges: Mark Branner, Terence Liu, Laurel Nakanishi, and Maya Soetoro-Ng.
Accuracy Judge: Kat Nelson.
Prompter: Rebecca Dunning.
Master of Ceremonies: Ben Gutierrez.
Opening remarks were given by Daniel A. Kelin, II, the Honolulu Theatre for Youth Director of Drama Education and an SFCA Artistic Teaching Partner Fellow. Additional remarks were given by Jonathan Johnson, SFCA Executive Director.
Poetry Out Loud National Finals Competition Cancelled
The Poetry Out Loud National Finals Competition scheduled for April 27-29th in Washington D.C. is cancelled. The Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts are exploring ways to honor the achievements of the Poetry Out Loud State Champions.