Illinois Arts Council Announces Poetry Out Loud State Final

ILLINOIS -- The Illinois Arts Council is pleased to announce Illinois' 2009-2010 Poetry Out Loud State Final, featuring recitations by sixteen regional contest winners. The event will take place on Thursday, March 18, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. in Springfield's Hoogland Center for the Arts. Attendance is free, open to the public, and accessible.

More than 4,500 students from 48 Illinois high schools participated in this year's Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, a free program created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation to encourage youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance. The Illinois Arts Council implements Poetry Out Loud statewide as a collaborative project with seven regional partners.  

Poetry Out Loud State Champions receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in April to compete for the national championship. The state champion's school will also receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books, and a runner-up will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library. Additionally, a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends will be awarded to the winners at the National Finals.

For more information regarding Illinois' regional and school Poetry Out Loud competitions, please contact the Illinois Arts Council's partnering organization directly:

For more information about the Poetry Out Loud program, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.