Mound Westonka High School ninth grader Hannah Christenson, a member of the Westonka Speech Team, took first place in the Edina regional Poetry Out Loud competition on Feb. 8. She now moves on to the state tournament Feb. 25 at Mankato State University.

Christenson competed with two poems, “American Smooth” by Rita Dove and “the world is about to end, and my grandparents are in love” by Kara Jackson. The first poem is about a partner dance and evokes the feelings of being lost in the moment with your partner; the second is about the love of grandparents for each other, with the poet wondering if she’ll ever find the same kind of love.

MWHS has never before had a student participate in Poetry Out Loud. Speech coach Rhys Jones said, “Not only is it exciting to experience the competition for the first time, but it is a testament to Hannah’s talent and hard work to also have immediate success like this!”

As a second-year member of Westonka Speech, Christenson has had a tremendous start to her competitive speaking season. In each of her three tournaments so far this year, she made the final rounds and came away with awards, as well as national tournament bids. Christenson holds the distinction of being the team’s youngest member ever to gain eligibility to one of the three national speech tournaments, the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions. Now that she has advanced to the state Poetry Out Loud competition, she has set a new school first as well!

Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that offers free educational resources to help students learn about great poetry, as well as sponsors a dynamic recitation competition each year. The Poetry Out Loud program is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Poetry Foundation. They offer a national poetry recitation competition each year in Washington DC, with each state eligible to send one student to compete. In Minnesota, the South Central Service Cooperative administers our state-wide chapter of the Poetry Out Loud program, and is funded by the Minnesota State Art Board. The SCSC runs our regional and state competitions. You can find more information about Poetry Out Loud on their website: poetryoutloud.org.