2025 Poetry Out Loud Winners
I’m circling back with this year’s winners of Poetry Out Loud from the competition on February 4th! Here is a link to some photos and the initial press release. The photo credit is Frank Rogozienski Thank you for any sharing of the student winners you are able to do!
• The 2025 Poetry Out Loud winner is Malakas Schlater-Julian from Valley Center High School
• The 2025 Poetry Out Loud runner up is Ixchel Roman Medina from Academy of Our Lady of Peace
• Malakas will go on to compete at the State finals in Sacramento on March 16th and 17th, 2025.
The Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, managed in California by the California Arts Council and regionally, by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture in association with Write Out Loud, presents POETRY OUT LOUD, a national poetry recitation competition for high school students. San Diego Regional Finals took place this year on February 4th at 5:00pm. The event was free and the public was encouraged to join our student participants and their families at the Neil Morgan Auditorium at San Diego Central Library.
Poetry Out Loud encourages high school students to learn about great poetry—both classic and contemporary—through memorization, performance, and competition. Since the program began in 2005, more than four million students across the country have participated in Poetry Out Loud. For the 2025 Poetry Out Loud, students will present their recitations of works selected from the Poetry Out Loud Anthology of more than 1,100 poems. Performances are judged on criteria including voice and articulation, evidence of understanding, and accuracy.
The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation have created free, standards-based curriculum materials to support Poetry Out Loud including a teacher’s guide, lesson plans, an online anthology, posters, and video and audio on the art of recitation. Write Out Loud offers in person and virtual poetry examination and performance workshops for students.