Poetry Live! is a new series of events that offers students in grades 6-12 the opportunity to not only recite poems written by great poets, but to write and recite their own original works as well. Poetry Live! will feature three events that students can choose to participate in: Poetry Out Loud, Poetry Out Loud Junior and Poet's Own Voice.

Poetry Out Loud is an event for high school students (grades 9-12) and is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Students participating in this event will choose three pieces from the Poetry Out Loud archive to recite in front of a live audience. Participating schools will hold their own competition in December or early January. They will crown their school champion who will move on to the Tulare County Poetry Out Loud event and compete for the county title.

The Poetry Out Loud experience is now being offered to middle school students (grades 6-8) in the Poetry Out Loud Junior event. Students participating in this event will choose three pieces from the Poetry Foundation archive of poems to recite in front of a live audience. Participating schools will hold their own competition in December or early January and send their school champion to county competition, where a student will be crowned the county champion.

The final event in the Poetry Live! family is Poet's Own Voice. This event is open to middle school and high school students (grades 6-12). There are two ways to participate. The first is a written event in which students submit five original works. Judges will determine the top piece from each student, as well as rank all pieces to determine the top three poems overall. At the Poetry Live event, students who submitted their written work can choose to recite their top original poem in front of an audience. Judges will choose from those performers the Tulare County Youth Poet Laureate.

School Registration Deadline
December 6, 2024
Online

Student Registration Deadline
January 9, 2025
Online

Media Release Form due
February 7, 2025

Poetry Live! event
February 7, 2025
Arts Consortium
300 E. Oak Ave., Visalia

Event Contacts:

Paula Terrill
Student Event Coordinator
(559) 651-0565