The Wyoming Arts Council hosts the Poetry Out Loud (POL) State Finals Competition on Mon., Feb 26, at 10 a.m. at the Surbrugg/Prentice Auditorium at Laramie County Community College (LCCC), 1400 East College Drive in Cheyenne.
Photo caption: 2023 Poetry Out Loud Winning competitors Briley Farris from Buffalo High School, Josephine Haberkorn from Cheyenne East High School, Kearza Martinez from Moorcroft High School, Shalon Wilkerson from Lovell High School, and Elora Umbach from Penn Foster High School in Casper.
Awards will be announced at a ceremony that evening at 6:30 p.m. at the UP Centennial Room in the Center for Conferences & Institutes (CCI) building, 1400 East College Drive, Cheyenne. The public is invited to attend both events.
Poetry Out Loud (POL) is the national recitation and memorization contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation. The POL program is designed for students in grades 9-12 attending public, private, or home schools and is an engaging way to teach and learn language arts standards through poetry.
This year, fourteen schools are sending representatives from across Wyoming to compete in the 2024 Wyoming State POL Competition. Students first compete at the classroom and school levels before participating in the state finals competition. Each school champion will recite three poems. The winner will have the opportunity to go on to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national competition that happens later in the spring.
This year’s judges for the state competition are Wyoming poets Izac Garcia, Annelise Wright, Brandon McQuade, Wyoming Poet Laureate Barbara Smith, and Fine & Performing Arts Consultant for the Wyoming Department of Education, Lori Pusateri-Lane.
The event will be emceed by writer, poet, and storyteller John Roedel.
For more information, contact Amara Fehring, Community Development and Arts Education Specialist with the Wyoming Arts Council, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..