Woodland, CA— Vanessa Anaya, a 9th grader at Esparto High School in Yolo County took first place in the 2019 countywide Poetry Out Loud competition on February 13 at the Gibson House in Woodland. Anaya will represent Yolo County at the upcoming state finals.
The California Poetry Out Loud State Finals will be held March 10 and 11 in Sacramento.
The winner of the event will move on to represent California in the national finals, in April in Washington, D.C.
At the county competition, Anaya recited They Said It Couldn’t Be Done by Edgar Albert Guest; The Star by Anne Taylor and Jane Taylor; and El Olvido by Judith Ortiz Cofer.
Beginning in 2005, this year’s state competition will be the 14th production from the California Arts Council. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Out Loud encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. California’s Poetry Out Loud is the largest event of its kind in the U.S., and has grown steadily since its inception. Event details for the 2019 California Poetry Out Loud State Finals can be found at https://www.capoetryoutloud.org/finals.