Bellmore-Merrick Announces Poetry Out Loud Finalists

Poetry as performance art continued its popularity across the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, as all three high schools held their individual Poetry Out Loud recitation contests.

Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry reciting competition that encourages the study of great poetry through memorization, performance and presentation. During the contests, students selected a poem to recite in front of a panel of judges composed of English teachers. Judges based scores on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, level of complexity, evidence of understanding and overall performance.

Two winners from each school were selected to move on to the regional competition at Stony Brook University on Feb. 26.

At Mepham High School, senior Lisa Condoluci earned first-place honors for her delivery of Arthur Rimbaud’s “Novel.” Senior Alyssa Rabinowitz recited Edward Hirsch’s “Poor Angels” for the second-place spot, and senior Jaime Marvin took third place for her presentation of E. E. Cummings’ “[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in].”

At Kennedy High School, 23 students vied for the top prizes in teacher Jeanette Pincus’ music room. In the end, the judges crowned sophomore Stephanie Person as the first-place winner for her recitation of Sylvia Path’s “The Applicant.”

Second place went to junior Rachel Mashal for her recitation of Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird.” Third place was awarded to sophomore Rebecca Stekol for her recitation of Ilya Kaminsky’s “Author’s Prayer.”

Calhoun High School held its Poetry Out Loud contest on Jan. 20 in music teacher Sanford Sardo’s class. First place went to Katie Gallagher, a student in Dr. Saul Wiener’s class. Second place went to Patty Georgas, also a student of Dr. Wiener. Third place was awarded to Megan Parr, a student in Peter Magnuson’s class.

Submitted by Bellmore-Merrick Schools

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