National Poetry Bee?!

The Poetry Foundation in Chicago is teaming up with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to begin pilot programs in Chicago and Washington D.C. middle and high schools, with the goal of having a national student poetry recitation contest. Foundation officials are turning to the National Spelling Bee and National Geography Bee as examples to follow. Officials hope to introduce a national contest this next school year. They will be attempting to reintroduce the enjoyment of poetry, along with speaking and reading poetry as a work of art, separate and apart from the focus on poetry analysis and form. Kevin Stein, poet laureate for the state of Illinois and English professor, says that students must understand and learn what a poem means, “then the poem stays with you in both heart and mind. That’s what matters.”

Bravo!

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