Wyoming Arts Council

Poetry Out Loud State Competition to be held March 3 at Laramie County Community College

Featured News, Program News | February 21, 2025

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The Wyoming Arts Council will host the Poetry Out Loud (POL) State Finals Competition on Mon., March 3, at 10 a.m. at the Surbrugg/Prentice Auditorium at Laramie County Community College (LCCC), 1400 East College Drive in Cheyenne. 

Awards will be announced at a ceremony that evening at 6:30 p.m. at the ANB Bank Leadership Center in the Clay Pathfinder 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, eight schools are sending representatives from across Wyoming to compete in the 2025 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 Cady Favazzo, Annelise Wright, and Wyoming Poet Laureate Barbara Smith. “I am so excited to see students gather from across Wyoming in Cheyenne for the 20th Poetry Out Loud Competition! Wyoming has been partnering with the National Endowment for the Arts since the inception of this program, and now 20 years later, students are still finding their voice with poetry”, a message from Wyoming Poetry Out Loud coordinator, Ismael Dominguez.

For more information, contact Ismael Dominguez, Programs Specialist with the Wyoming Arts Council, at ismael.dominguez@wyo.gov.

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