Expressing the moment

It was the impassioned writings of Lady Mary Chundleigh and Dudley Randall that moved New Madrid High School student Kristian Twyman to choose them for Sunday's Poetry Out Loud competition.

She chose the "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall she said, because it is National Black History Month and the poem reflects the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church.

The poem relays the conversation between a young child and his mother.

"Mother dear, may I go downtown

Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a Freedom March today?"

"No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren't good for a little child."

Her other reading, Lady Mary Chundleigh's, "To the Ladies" inspired her to think about a woman's value in a relationship. "A lot of women out there treat their men like kings," she said. "They should be wise and value themselves."

Twyman Sunday won first-place for her readings at the recitation competition at Southeast Missouri State University Academic Hall. The Lilbourn, Mo., resident competed against 12 area high school students for the coveted first place award, which earned Twyman a $100 savings bond from Alliance Bank and a chance to compete at the state level March 13 in Jefferson City. State winners will compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C., April 30 and May 1, at which winners receive $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends.

Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation contest created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, and is administered in partnership with state art agencies nationwide. The program fosters the next generation of literary readers by capitalizing on the latest trends in poetry -- recitation and performance. It builds on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the popularity of rap music, and invites those mediums into the English classroom, Tayloe said.

This year's participants came from Stoddard, Wayne, Bollinger, New Madrid, Butler, Perry, Pemiscot and Phelps counties.

Cape Girardeau Central High School and Jackson High School also competed in the event, which was judged by Dr. Susan Swartwout, Dr. James D'Agostino, Dr. Rose Whitlow and Karen Carcia.

Twyman said she prepared for the competition around everyday school activities and playing on the school's Lady Eagle basketball team.

She credited her teachers for helping her prepare, and said she wasn't at all nervous reciting in front of more than 150 people in the audience.

Andrea Baker and Nikki Owens, communications arts teachers for New Madrid High School, were there to cheer on Twyman.

"I think it's great," Baker said. "She deserves it. She's a hard worker."

Baker said preparations for the event began after Christmas, with nearly 200 students competing at the classroom level and 28 making it to the school finals.

"I think it's absolutely great for our school," Owens said of Twyman's win. She hopes it will encourage students to participate in the school's new speech team.

Baker added that the win shows what rural schools can accomplish.

"It says a lot about us to have a winner," she said.

Jonathan Cutler of South Pemiscot High School was runner up, receiving a $50 savings bond from Bank of America.

Cutler recited "Anthem for Doomed Youth," by Wilfred Owen and "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Cutler thanked his teachers and brothers for his success when he accepted his award Sunday.

Delilah Tayloe, executive director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri and master of ceremonies at the competition, thanked the teachers for making the event possible and Southeast's department of English for the following reception.

It is the first year the arts council participated in the event, Tayloe said.

Last year eight Missouri high schools entered the competition, which was piloted in all 50 states, she said. This year 42 Missouri schools participated. Students gain public speaking skills and build self-confidence while learning about their literary heritage.

"You can connect to other times and other minds through poetry," Tayloe said.

Last year more than $100,000 in prizes were awarded to students and schools at the national and state levels. More than 200,000 students nationwide are expected to participate in Poetry Out Loud this year, with 5,000 students from 43 Missouri schools.

The first-place school will receive $500 for the purchase of poetry books for the school's library, and the second-place school will receive $200.

The program satisfies requirements for Missouri Show-Me Standards and NCTE English Language Arts Standards.

For more information on Poetry Out Loud, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.

carel@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127