Cambridge Student Wins 2016 Poetry Out Loud Contest

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MILTON, GA -- A student at Cambridge High School has been named the winner of the 2016 Poetry Out Loud state competition, the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Georgia Council for the Arts said.

Marta Palombo, a senior at the school in Milton, took home the first-place prize in the state finals. Marta will now represent Georgia in the national finals May 2-4 in Washington, D.C.

“Poetry Out Loud is a remarkable program that connects Georgia’s youth with incredible works of poetry and inspires confidence in public speaking – a critical skill for future success,” said Karen Paty, executive director of Georgia Council for the Arts. “We strongly believe in the role of the arts in educating our youth and we are grateful to our partners, NEA and the Atlanta History Center, for their support and for continuing to grow student participation and the quality of this program in Georgia’s high schools.”

Poetry Out Loud is a national program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation which encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization and recitation of the written word. Georgia’s Poetry Out Loud champion receives $200 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Marta's school will also be presented with a $500 certificate that will go towards new books. The Poetry Out Loud runner-up, Joshua Sands-Lee, a freshman at Perry High School in Perry, receives $100 from the NEA, and $200 for new books for his school.

“The state final round was full of surprises for me,” said Palombo. “There were so many amazing competitors, the last thing I expected was to make it to the finals, let alone win. I went in hoping to hear beautiful interpretations of poetry and have fun, and somehow on top of all that I qualified for nationals. I was so happy!”

Started in 2005 as a pilot program in Chicago and Washington, D.C., Poetry Out Loud has grown to involve millions of students from across the country.

This is the eighth year that Atlanta History Center’s Margaret Mitchell House has been selected by Georgia Council for the Arts to coordinate the state’s Poetry Out Loud competition. Georgia’s participation includes 88 schools in 45 counties, over 13,000 students and more than 450 teachers.

“Poetry Out Loud has become a valued part of the Atlanta History Center’s Margaret Mitchell House programming,” said Emily Cobb, Poetry Out Loud State Coordinator at the Atlanta History Center. “It goes hand in hand with the literary lecture series, the youth educational programs such as the summer writing camps, as well as the daily visitor experience. These all are vital in the promotion of opening the world of the Arts to high school students across our state.”

If your school would like to get involved with Poetry Out Loud, please contact Emily Cobb at EReece@AtlantaHistoryCenter.com or call 404-814-4017.

For more information about Poetry Out Loud, please visit www.MargaretMitchellHouse.com/POL.

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Image via Georgia Council for the Arts