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SPRINGFIELD AREA ARTS COUNCIL ANNOUNCES CENTRAL ILLINOIS REGIONAL WINNERS
From “History” by Camille Rankine:
Each finger weak with the memory:
lost teeth, regret. Our ghosts
walk the shoulders of the road at night.
I get the feeling you’ve been lying to me.
These words, among those recited by Ashyla Richards of Springfield Southeast High School, earned her first place in the Central Illinois Poetry Out Loud Contest held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts on Thursday afternoon, February 13, 2025.
Jada Jackson of Springfield Southeast High School and Jillian Garcia of Decatur Eisenhower High School were the second- and third-place finishers in the competition.
Richards and Jackson will advance to the Illinois State Contest on March 17th (10:00 A.M., Hoogland Center for the Arts) with special guest Angela Jackson, Illinois Poet Laureate. The Illinois State champion will advance to the national contest.
More than 940 students and 23 teachers in 6 schools began the 2025 Poetry Out Loud season in central Illinois last fall.
Other contestants in the Central Illinois Regional Contest were
Gwynn Freeman, Edwardsville Community High School (Edwardsville)
Emyleina Garcia, Eisenhower High School (Decatur)
Ella Meyer, Lutheran High School (Springfield)
Emma Selhime, Pawnee High School (Pawnee)
Avery Arisman and Anna Reeder, Sacred Heart-Griffin High School (Springfield)
Contest staff for the Central Illinois Regional Contest included
Coordinator: Sheila Walk
Recitation judges: Patrick Johnson, Dominique Stevenson, LaDonna Wilson-Leach
Accuracy judge: Thèa Chesley
Scorekeeper: Bob Jessup
Prompter: Carey Smith
Poetry Out Loud in Illinois is a collaborative project of the Illinois Arts Council and six arts agencies, each of which hosts a regional contest. The Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest is a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through analysis, memorization, performance, and competition. The National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation, in conjunction with state arts agencies, support this nation-wide program with participants from all fifty states plus American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
