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| Pam Breaux, Assistant Secretary to the Office of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, with State Champion Keaghan Kane |
On Saturday, March 24th, eleven finalists from
across Louisiana high schools competed at the Louisiana State Museum for top
honors as Louisiana State Champion for Poetry Out Loud’s 2012 season. Over a
thousand students competed in Louisiana, and three students from Southwest
Louisiana were among these finalists: Keaghan Kane, home schooled, 12th
grade; Elizabeth Salvador, home schooled, 10th grade; and Raven
Dobbins of Washington-Marion High School, 9th grade.
After a highly competitive contest in which each student
recited three poems on stage in front of a packed room and four qualified
judges including published poets and LSU professors, Kane was awarded first
place as State Champion and will go on to represent Southwest Louisiana at the
National Poetry Out Loud Competition in Washington, D.C. on May 13th-14th.
Kane will be the second Lake Charles student in a row that competes
at the national competition with last year’s state championship awarded to
David Douglas of Washington-Marion High School. Kane won the state judges over
with her recitations of “Preludes” by T.S. Eliot, “Crossing the Bar” by Alfred,
Lord Tennyson, and “Monet Refuses the Operation” by Lisel Mueller. Kane, who
has competed in Poetry Out Loud for the past four years, is a home schooled
senior graduating in May, and she will attend Patrick Henry College in
Purcellville, Virginia, to pursue a degree in literature.
“This was Keaghan’s last year to be eligible to compete, and
she has grown stronger each year in her abilities to understand the
architecture of each poem and to translate that understanding effortlessly in
her performances,” stated Erica McCreedy, Special Projects Coordinator for the
Arts Council. “She will be a great voice for Louisiana at the national
competition.”
Poetry Out Loud began in 2005 from the joint efforts of the
National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. The Louisiana
Division of the Arts has been played a vital role in keeping this program
strong, and the Arts Council facilitates this program in Southwest Louisiana each
year. For more information about Poetry Out Loud or how to participate in next
year’s round of competitions, contact the Arts Council at (337) 439-2787.
