Sophomore wins third-annual Poetry Out Loud competition

By Diego Marcucci
Staff Writer

Sophomore Miriam Sachs placed first place at the Mira Costa annual Poetry Out Loud competition on Jan. 17 in the Mira Costa library.

Out of 19 contestants, senior Madison Hummer placed second and seniors Alex Hanson, Dina Mitchell and junior Emily Petillon placed third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. Each contestant recited two poems from the Poetry Out Loud anthology.

“I really like seeing students get up there and challenge themselves and do something that is often kind of overlooked,” Costa English teacher Quincy Howerton said. “It has a broad audience and is celebrating something that’s often not celebrated.”

Judges Laura Dahms, Quincy Howerton, Nicole Wachell, Jessica Wiseman and Alan Zeoli chose the winners based on physical presence, articulation, dramatic appropriateness, level of complexity, evidence of understanding and overall performance.

“It’s really hard to pick a winner,” Howerton said. “It’s really fast paced so if you’re choosing between two things you just have to go with your gut.”

Sachs will compete in February at the Los Angeles Country competition. The winner of each county then goes to compete at the state level. The National Finals will be held in Washington, D.C.. A student from each state will then compete in a competition for the national title.

“I was very surprised that I won the competition because everyone was so good,” Sachs said. “I’m very happy and excited to go onto the next round in LA.”

After the contestants performed, Master of Ceremonies and Costa English teacher Diana Sieker offered an open mic to the audience to recite original poetry.

“The competition itself was great,” sophomore Ryan Reiff said. “One of the best parts of the competition was the open mic portion because you could listen to the poetry of the audience and not just the ones that the contesttants performed.”

This year’s poetry competition had fewer contestants than the previous year, but according to Howerton and Sieker, the level of talent was still equally matched.

“Every year, the students’ recitations are always riveting and compelling, and this year was not any different,” Sieker said. “Any way that I can get more poetry into Mira Costa is a good thing.”