Local Students Shine at State Poetry Finals
Sierra and Plumas County champions recite classic American poems in Sacramento.
County champions in front of the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, prior to Sunday’s competition. Sienna is in the second row, about third from the left. Paige is on the far right of the second row.
SACRAMENTO — Forty-nine of California’s counties sent their Poetry Out Loud champions to Sacramento for the state finals on March 7 & 8. Two of those champions were from our area: Sienna Larrucea, Sierra County’s champion from Loyalton High School, and Paige Matlock, Plumas County’s champion from Portola High School. Sienna was accompanied to the event by her mother, Eveline Larrucea, and Paige was accompanied by Portola High School English teacher, Amanda Osburn.
On Sunday, all forty-nine student participants recited two of the three poems that they had memorized. Recitations were judged on physical presence, voice and articulation, interpretation, evidence of understanding, overall performance, and accuracy. The fifteen participants with the highest scores from those first two rounds moved on to the final third round on Monday. Unfortunately, neither of our local students was in that final round group.
Sienna in the California Capitol building, where the third round of competition was held.
In the first round of the competition, Sienna’s recitation was Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask”, and Paige’s recitation was Margaret Widdemer’s “The Modern Woman to her Lover”. In the second round, Sienna recited “On Summer”, by George Moses Horton, while Paige recited “Israfel”, by Edgar Allan Poe. All poems on the accepted list this year were by United States poets, in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. Several poems had been selected by more than one participant, including “We Wear the Mask”, “Militants to Certain Other Women” and “Thoughts in Jail” (both by Katharine Rolston Fisher), “O Captain! My Captain!” (by Walt Whitman), “A Dream Within a Dream” (by Edgar Allen Poe), “The New Colossus” (by Emma Lazarus), “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (by Robert Frost), and “Why We Oppose Pockets for Women” (by Alice Duer Miller).
This year’s California state champion, who will represent the state at the national competition in Washington, D.C., in May, is Lillian Brady from Marin School of the Arts at Novato High School in Marin County. The runner-up is Sailee Charlu from Orange County School of the Arts in Orange County. And, the honorable mention is Zoewin Abariga from Great Oak High School in Riverside County. Additionally, first place in the Poetry Ourselves competition (in which county champions are invited to submit a poem of their own creation) went to Beza Getahun from C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento County, while the runner-up was the afore-mentioned Sailee Charlu, and honorable mention went to Mahati Vaidyanathan from Hillsdale High School in San Mateo County.
Even though our two local students did not advance to the final round of competition, people in both Sierra County and Plumas County can be assured that they were represented well and honorably by our local champions. We congratulate them on their accomplishments and commend them on being our representatives.