The Okefenokee Heritage Center (OHC) has again been selected to participate in a special Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) event.
GCA Executive Director Tina Lilly, Visual Arts Manager Kenny Oaster, and Grants and Arts Education Program Manager Emily Yewell Volin were at OHC Friday, January 16 to answer questions and offer support as OHC prepares to host the inaugural Southeast Regional Poetry Out Loud (POL) competition.
The POL high school competition program was founded in 2006 by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and The Poetry Foundation.
The purpose of the program is to encourage students interested in poetry, creative writing, acting and public speaking.
In Georgia, POL is facilitated by the Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA), which is contracted with the Tony award-winning Alliance Theatre to produce the program.
High School and eighth-grade students in 9th-grade ELA classes are eligible to participate in the recitation competition using poems from an anthology supplied by the NEA.
Participants are scored on their presentation and delivery. Last year's grand prize winner, Isavel Mendoza, a senior at Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts in Bethlehem, Pa., walked away with a $20,000 prize.
“We’re super excited to be engaging Waycross and the surrounding areas,” said Volin.
