Portsmouth Abbey will participate in this year's Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest sponsored by The Poetry Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts. Abbey students will initially compete in their English classes, and the winners will then move on to the School competition at the end of February. One student will be chosen from the School competition to participate in the Rhode Island state competition in March, where at least 12 other schools will be represented. The winner of the Rhode Island competition will then participate in the national competition, to be held in Washington, D.C., in April.
To kick off this exciting program, the Abbey was fortunate to have the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island, Lisa Starr, visit the School on January 28 and recite poems at Monday morning assembly. Mrs. Starr was joined by Brian Platt, a representative of the Rhode Island affiliate of Poetry Out Loud. Together, they visited classrooms and coached students on their recitations.
During conference period on Monday, students and faculty were invited to join Mrs. Starr and Mr. Platt in the Auditorium, where students were able to recite a poem that was then critiqued by Mrs. Starr and Mr. Platt. Caroline Mason '08, Ed Kielb '11 and Naseemah Mohamed '08 all received the benefit of Mrs. Starr's and Mr. Platt's expertise as they took to the stage with their interpretations of poems and soliloquies by Wallace Stevens, Shakespeare and James Joyce's "Ulysses."
Mrs. Starr also spoke to Mr. Bragan's Creative Writing class and introduced a new program that she is hoping to develop with schools throughout Rhode Island. The goal of the program is to have students share their poetry with a writing group in a local adult living facility. Each student will be paired with a member of that group and they will exchange their work, much like a Pen Pal program. Both Mrs. Starr and Mr. Platt will return to Portsmouth in February to continue their work with the students.
View photos of Monday's Poetry Session.
To find out more about Poetry Out Loud, visit their website at www.poetryoutloud.org
To learn more about Mrs. Starr and her highly acclaimed workshops on Block Island, visit her website at www.bipoetryproject.com.
