After a hard-earned victory at the school-wide Poetry Out Loud competition, Amber Jackson headed to the Regionals event at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where she came out in second place. She will be competing in Jackson on March 9 for a chance to advance to the national level.

Poetry Out Loud is a competition that encourages youth to learn about the significance of poetry by memorizing and reciting chosen poems. Judges evaluate each performance based on accuracy and the portrayal of heartfelt emotions.

Jackson, who is a junior at MSMS, explained her reason for deciding to participate in Poetry Out Loud.

“I really like interpreting words and trying to find the beauty in them to see how other people will perceive it,” she said.

For her regional performance, she chose to recite “The Consent” by Howard Nemerov and “Ways of Talking” by Ha Jin. She intends to choose more poems relating to the topics of love and immigration.

To prepare Amber for the competition, senior Wrishija Roy spent countless hours coaching Amber. As a previous regional contestant for Poetry Out Loud, Roy had plenty of tips and tricks to share for success.

“After the school contest we met about once a week to make sure she still had the words memorized, since accuracy is a pretty big factor. We also met with a guy from the MUW theatre department as well as MSMS alumna Joy Cariño (who’s had national experience with Poetry Out Loud) to help Amber with vocal coaching and understanding as well as expressing the meanings of her poems,” Roy stated about their preparations.

Both participants agree that taking part in Poetry Out Loud has left a lasting impression on them and allowed them to see the required effort that is put into reciting poetry with emotion.

“Poetry Out Loud has most definitely helped me come out of my shell. Having an outlet to express myself, especially through an art form that was completely new to me, allowed me to become more open and involved as both a student and a person,” Roy expressed.

For anyone interested in doing Poetry Out Loud next year, Roy recommends looking for poems as soon as the year starts to ensure poems are fully memorized before the school contest so that focus can be put on other things like physical presence and voice.