POETRY OUT LOUD

Congratulations to Sierra Pearson of Tamalpais High School, winner of the 2024-2025 Marin County Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest County Finals! 

Sierra will represent Marin County in the State Finals in Sacramento for a chance to proceed to the National Finals in Washington, D.C.

Of 500 participating high school students across Marin County, four students were selected as finalists including: 

1st Place - Sierra Pearson, Tamalpais High School
2nd Place - Juno Phipps, Novato High School 
3rd Place - Sareena Kumar, Branson School
4th Place - Frances Sveinson, Marin School of The Arts

Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Out Loud is administered statewide by the California Arts Council.
 

The Marin Cultural Association is a state local partner for Poetry Out Loud, organizing the program in Marin County schools and hosting the county finals competition. 

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MARIN COUNTY POETRY OUT LOUD EVENTS 

 

Marin County Poetry Out Loud Annual High School Finals 
Saturday, February 8, 2025, 2 pm, FREE
Showcase Theater, Marin Center
20 Avenue of the Flags
San Rafael, CA 94903 

Welcome & Opening Remarks
Tracy Bays-Boothe, Managing Director, Marin Cultural Association

Judge Recitation
Francesca Bell

Student Poetry Performances Round One

Juno Phipps – NOVATO HIGH SCHOOL
"Epitaph" by Katherine Philips

Sierra Pearson – TAMALPAIS HIGH SCHOOL
"Drowning in Wheat" by John Kinsella

Sareena Kumar – THE BRANSON SCHOOL
"Ah! Why, Because the Dazzling Sun" by Emily Brontë

Frances Sveinson – MARIN SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
"Ghost Dance" by Sarah Littlecrow-Russell

Coach Recitation
Oshalla Dee

Student Poetry Performances Round Two

Sareena Kumar – THE BRANSON SCHOOL
"Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: “At the airport-security checkpoint…” by Claudia Rankine

Frances Sveinson – MARIN SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340)" by Emily Dickinson

Juno Phipps – NOVATO HIGH SCHOOL
"a song in the front yard" by Gwendolyn Brooks

Sierra Pearson –TAMALPAIS HIGH SCHOOL
"A Hymn to the Evening" by Phyllis Wheatley

Poet Laureate Program Announcement
Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş

Awards and Thank You
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​About This Year's Judges

Francesca Bell is the author of Bright Stain, finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Julie Suk Award, and What Small Sound, finalist for the Julie Suk Award and recipient of an honorable mention for the Eric Hoffer Award. She translated Max Sessner’s Whoever Drowned Here, finalist for the Northern California Book Award, from the German. Her work appears in ELLE, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Rattle. She is the Marin County Poet Laureate and a translation editor at the Los Angeles Review.

Yeva Johnson is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet whose work appears in Bellingham Review, Obsidian, sin cesar, Sinister Wisdom, and elsewhere. Johnson explores interlocking caste systems and possibilities for human co-existence in our biosphere. Yeva’s debut chapbook, Analog Poet Blues, is available at Black Lawrence Press.

Tracy Jones is a poet, multidisciplinary artist, and literary citizen whose poems have been published in juried anthologies. She also experiments with filmmaking, performance, and interactive art. Jones is a recent Center for Cultural Innovation grant recipient, is currently a Creative-In-Residence at the Ruby in San Francisco, and serves on the board for the Marin Cultural Association. Additionally, she gives back as a South By Southwest Creative Economy Mentor, a TEDx Curator, and has served two terms on the board of directors for the Marin Poetry Center. Tracy has served a judge for the inaugural Marin County Youth Poet Laureate program and is a returning county judge for Poetry Out Loud. 

 

About This Year's Coaches

Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş is a choreographer, writer, and filmmaker from Northern California currently researching the intersections of language and movement through interdisciplinary collaborations with composers, designers, animators, coders, writers, and dancers. Maxine graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch. Her poetry, fiction, scores, essays, and interviews have appeared widely in Dance Art Journal, Samfiftyfour_Literary, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Gallatin Review, October Hill Magazine, and VerbalEyze Press, where she published her first novella, through Eileen.

Oshalla Dee is an actor, dancer, coach, director, producer, playwright and the Director of MC Arts & Culture. Oshalla is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Actors Equity Association; STARS Talent Agency-San Francisco commercially represents her and she is a graduate of the California Institute for Integral Studies, where she majored in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Arts, Wellness and Entrepreneurship. Oshalla believes and lives the motto that the arts save lives and is on a life-long journey to channel the Muses to guide and inspire all who choose to enter her realm of creation.

Additional Thanks

Michelle Barsky, Poetry Out Loud Coordinator and Prompter
Steve Dow, Interim Director, Department of Cultural Services and Score Tabulator
Lauren Howard, Accuracy Judge​
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