Poetry Out Loud Marks 20th Anniversary

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence will present the 20th Anniversary celebration of POETRY OUT LOUD: A Festival of Children’s Poetry. It will be held at 7 p.m. May 14 in the Whitney Young Auditorium at New Rochelle High School.

There will be 80 students from New Rochelle’s six elementary and two middle schools who will step up to the podium and read their poems from a newly published book before a packed audience of friends, family, educators and community members.

As they do, they will join the ranks of the 1,600 children who have participated in POETRY OUT LOUD since its inception two decades ago, according to a spokesman.

Mayor Noam Bramson will be the master of ceremonies for this district-wide poetry program sponsored the NRFund’s Jeremy Scheinfeld Publishing Center in honor and in memory of a young student who loved to write.

To commemorate this remarkable moment, Jacqueline Woodson, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2018-2019, has created a video in which she welcomes and congratulates our newest group of poets, expressing her love of poetry, and reading some of her own poems.

In addition, multi-instrument instructor and performer Dana Mancuso will give a special performance to kick-off the evening. Mancuso was a 2001 participant of Poetry Out Loud, a 2008 recipient of the NR Fund’s Arts and Culture Award and is a graduate of New Rochelle High School. She is currently the choral director at Alexander Hamilton High School in Elmsford.

“We look forward to this celebratory event each year and thank the Scheinfeld Family for their ongoing generosity,” said Andrea Berman, executive director of the New Rochelle Fund. “The fund is pleased to be able to partner with the City School District of New Rochelle on this initiative. The guidance offered by teachers across the District is critical to ensure the students are prepared and have the confidence to read their poetry to hundreds of community members.”

Logo: New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence.