This past week, Niles West put on their annual Poetry Out-loud event, where students can share a poem they memorized in a competition. Not only is it a competition where high school students can share their voices, it also creates a community for people who love poetry. This event gives students an opportunity to share poetry they prepared in class and share their poems to a panel of judges.

Students went through a long process to prepare their poems. Teachers worked with students to prepare their poems in class, but students mostly had to prepare outside of class, by sharing their poems with people to help them memorize for the event.

“I had to memorize [the poetry] every single day and I would tell everyone, have people listen to me reciting the poetry, I would perform around judgmental people so I could get rid of the stress. I tried to ingrain it in my head so I would never forget. Practice with people who are critical so they can tell you what’s wrong and what you need to improve on, if you practice with people who are most critical then it will help you improve your confidence because you will become less afraid” finalist Jade Alao said.

Not only did this event help students build their confidence in public speaking, but this also bettered them in other aspects of school. “I think it helps them understand poetry more, they look behind the meaning of the poem to understand it better, which can help in a lot of academic settings.” English teacher Sharon Swanson said.

This event provided an opportunity for students to share their voices and their love of poetry with their classmates and teachers. This event gives a chance for students to truly express themselves in poetry and help their peers also get into the world of poetry. Audience members also loved this event just as much as re-citers, who said that they loved watching their classmates express themselves and how everyone’s poems were different, and how everyone was so creative with their poetry.

“My favorite part about watching the poetry was seeing how different everyone’s poems were and their different expressions, they were all really creative with their poems.” sophomore Minea Kobilska said.