By: Kayla Brogan and Carissa Hazzard
White Plains High School freshman and co-president of the class of 2025, Lance Anthony, rises to the Poetry Out Loud State Championships.
On March 12th a virtual live-stream of the Poetry Out Loud State Championships will take place. Each participant will show their poetry in the form of a video and submit it to the state prior to this event. Our own Lance Anthony will compete.
The Poetry Out-Loud Competition is a national event where high-school students go through a series of rounds in hopes to advance to the nationwide competition. Students will first compete at the semi-finals, then advance to the state championships, and finally reach nationals if their poems meet the criteria and win overall first place. Winners of both the statewide and nationwide competitions will receive generous funding towards educational purposes. State and nationwide competitions consist of three rounds in which students must prepare three poems for each consecutive round. Students pick three poems that they would like to perform from the Poetry Out-Loud online anthology which is updated every summer. Each participant should be equipped with proper speaking, performing, and interpersonal communication skills.
Lance, who is currently being contested at the state level competition, was inspired to enter by his creative writing teacher earlier this year. He was also driven by his love for theatre and preforming. Lance says, “I was really interested in putting my performing skills, as I do theatre, into place.” For states, the criteria led Lance to pick poems of a somber and happy tone respectively, in addition to a classic sad love poem. Lance expressed that he feels honored to make it all the way to states, and he did not anticipate making it this far, only being a freshmen. Although he is nervous for the future, he is excited and glad to have made it this far in the competition.
The Orange wishes Lance the best of luck in the upcoming competition!