Two Cornwall Central High School students represented their school in the New York State Semi-Final competition for Poetry Out Loud held last week and one teenager won. Moses Usen and Ellen Kramer competed in the regional leg of this national competition.
Usen won the Hudson Valley region’s State Semi-Finals during a poetry reading at SUNY New Paltz on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. He will now advance to the New York State Final in New York City on Saturday, March 11, 2023.
If Usen wins the State Finals, he will advance to the National Finals.
Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation competition, open to students in grades 9-12. The program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about diverse poets and their work. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation partner with national state arts agencies to support Poetry Out Loud, which encourages the nation’s youth to learn about poetry through memorization and recitation.
In New York State, the group Teachers & Writers Collaborative manages Poetry Out Loud in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts.
