By Margie M. Plamer

Grossmont Middle High School senior Kylie Greaves never expected she’d be chosen to represent San Diego at the Poetry Out Loud state finals — especially since California is the home of the nation’s largest statewide competition.

The program, which is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, is coordinated locally by San Diego Write Out Loud (SDWOL) and it encourages high school students to learn about poetry through performance, memorization and competition.

SDWOL Director and co-founder Veronica Murphy said that the students who want to get involved with Poetry Out Loud make their own selection of poems that they’ll need to perform out of a 500-poem anthology.

“They have to read these poems and find out which ones resonate with them,” Murphy said. “They need to get really involved with it if they’re going to memorize and recite it. It gives kids an opportunity to stand before their peers and the community, to be confident and to perform.”

Greaves, who has been involved with the C. Hook Theater Company since 2015, said she was introduced to Poetry Out Loud during her junior year.

“I didn’t know what it was about, but I knew I liked poetry,” she said, adding that her English teacher encouraged her to give it a shot. “She knew I was interested in theater, that I liked poetry and she knew what I liked to do in class and what I would get excited about. I really got into it.”

Fast forward to 2018, when Greaves signed on to compete at the countywide Poetry Out Loud competition at the San Diego Central Library. After placing first at the Feb. 6 event, she advanced to the state finals, which were held on March 18 and 19 in Sacramento.

“I never thought I would advance to state finals, because this one girl, her poems made me tear up and I thought she was going to win,” Greaves said. “I thought everyone who [performed at the countywide competition] was so talented, and that there was no way that I would be advancing.”

Her experience at finals, she said, was equally rewarding.

“[When I met the other finalists], they were the nicest group of people that I’ve ever met and honestly, they were all so supportive,” Greaves said.

Of the 46 participants in the state finals, the top spot went to Alexis Rangell-Onwuegbuzia from Mater Dei High School in Orange County, who will go on to represent California in the national competition held April 23–25 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. While she wasn’t selected to advance to nationals, Greaves said she was happy to have had the opportunity to represent San Diego during the state competition.

“I think with theater and in the arts, you do things to be the best. In theater, you want to get the main role. But with poetry, [this competition] was about supporting everyone and listening to what everyone had to say,” she said, and added that performing poetry on stage is about more than just standing up in front of a crowd. Performing, she said, helps give students a voice.

Greaves also encourages those who have been thinking about getting involved with Poetry Out Loud, but haven’t yet taken the leap, to give it a try.

“I would definitely say to do it, because although standing up in front of people and reading poetry is hard and intimidating, it’s important because it also gives you a voice,” she said. “I think it’s really important to have a voice right now, especially with everything that’s going on in politics. If you feel you don’t have a voice, poetry can give you that.”

— Freelance writer Margie M. Palmer can be reached at [email protected].