Celebrating 20 years of great poetry brought to life by young voices
Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation competition for high school students. Participating students develop public speaking skills. They build self-confidence and learn to connect with literature in new ways, often discovering a new outlet for creative expression.
Poetry Out Loud is supported by The National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation. ArtsWA coordinates and manages the program in Washington State.
Poetry Out Loud began in Washington in 2005 with eight schools in Thurston County, reaching 624 students. Washington’s very first state final competition held at South Puget Sound Community College.
Over the past 20 years over 200 individual public and private schools in Washington State have participated in Poetry Out Loud, reaching over 275,000 students.
The annual State Final Competition takes place in March and is a free event open to the public. In the years following 2005 it moved to the University of Puget Sound; the Rialto Theatre and Theatre on the Square in downtown Tacoma, The Museum of Glass, and currently finds its home at the historic Tacoma Little Theatre in Tacoma’s north end.
Outreach Toolkit
Download and use the resources below to share information about Washington State Poetry Out Loud with your community.
English
Spanish/Español
