Winners Named in the Annual SHS “Poetry Out Loud” Recitation Contest
Launch the media gallery 1 playerSHS Sophomore, Lauren Shepherd was announced the winner in the recent SHS Poetry Out Loud recitation contest at Seward High on Monday, December 06, 2010 in their new theater. The contest was open to all SHS students. There were 32 students entered in the competition. Lauren Shepherd won first with her poem “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” by Richard Hugo. Second place winner was SHS senior Heather Kuhlman with the poem “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins and third place was awarded to Jimmy Steinauer with the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes.
Honored as the Best Senior non-finalist was Daniel Pfeiffer with the poem “Layabout” by John Brehm, Best Junior was Andrea von Kampen with the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and there was a tie for Best Sophomore between Emily Thrailkill with “Drowning in Wheat” by John Kinsella and Arianna
Bohning with “Piano” by D. H. Lawrence. Lauren will now be competing on the regional level and representing Seward High School.
The Seward Arts Council furnished medals for all of the winners and cash prizes for first, second and third place awards. Judges for the event included Katie Wright and Lara Kibler of the Crete High School English Department along with Sarah Wolff and Stephanie Christiansen of Concordia University’s English, Speech and Drama Education Division. Nancy Schulz of the East Butler Speech, English and Drama Departments, served as the Accuracy Judge for the contest. Clark Kolterman was the participating student’s teacher and coordinated the event.
Seward High students that prepared for the 2010 Poetry Out Loud contest included
Bryce Van Velson - “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley, Grant Beckler -“Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost, Allison Leising -“Fairy Tale Logic” by A. E. Stallings, Emily Thrailkill -“Drowning in Wheat” by John Kinsella, Jaclyn Pennington -“Fairy Tale Logic” by A. E. Stallings, Kennedy Sloan -“There’s Been a Death” by Emily Dickinson, Daniel Pfeiffer -“Layabout” by John Brehm, Dayna Svoboda -“Song of the Powers” by David Mason, Alyssa Sleight -“Part for the Whole” by Robert Francis, Andrea Von Kampen - “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost,
Russell Wilke - “Beautiful Wreckage” by W.D. Ehrart, Jimmy Steinauer -“Harlem” by Langston Hughes, Heather Kuhlman -“Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins,
CJ Johnson- “Zoom” by Simon Armtrage, Bethany Rexus -“Fire & Ice” by Robert Frost, Jess Kadavy - “Here” by Joshua Mehigan, Douglas Simpson - “Song of the Powers”by David Mason, Jillian Kongsjord -“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Bobi Albrecht -“Fairy Tale Logic” by A.E. Stallings, Sam Brauer - “Is My Team Ploughing?” by A.E. Housman, Dillon Holder - “The Princess: Now Sleeps the…” by Lord Alfred Tennyson, Tatyana Tieken –“Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson, Stacey Chekal - “Who Understands Me But Me” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Payton Guenther - “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson, Arianna Bohning -“Piano” by D.H. Lawrence, Trevor Otterstein -“Sonnet XVIII: Shall I Compare…” by William Shakespeare, Sarah Moody - “A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky” by Lewis Carroll, Lauren Shepherd -“Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” by Richard Hugo, Makayla Forsythe -“The Last Laugh” by Wilfred Owen, Hayley Yelden -“Let it be Forgotten” by Sara Teasdale, Erin Miller -“Waking from Sleep” by Robert Bly and Garrett Hallberg-“Full Moon” by Elinor Wylie.
The Poetry Out Loud competition is a national program that promotes the memorization/recitation of poetry. The students can select from over 400 poems on the Poetry Out Loud website. One student from Nebraska will represent Nebraska at the national level of Poetry Out Loud. It is sponsored locally by Seward High and the Seward Arts Council, on the state level by the Nebraska Arts Council and Nebraska Humanities Council and nationally by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Poetry Foundation.