The Kentucky Arts Council awarded St. X with a grant to host the annual Poetry Out Loud competition. The grant includes an artist from the Arts Council to do a workshop for participating classes. The school winner and his class also receive transportation to Frankfort for the state competition. Various English classes from all grade levels participated in the annual competition.
Mrs. Kelly Logsdon, an English teacher here at St. X, was the coordinator of the annual event. She applied for the grant on the school’s behalf so students could participate in the competition.
“30 English classes competed in their classrooms where each student had to memorize a poem and recite it to the class,” Logsdon said. “Each classroom chose a winner in their class to represent them in the school competition.”
All of the school finalists who competed in the competition made it difficult for the panel of judges. According to Logsdon, this year was the most competitive compared to years past.
“This was the toughest and closest competition we have ever had in the six years that we have competed in Poetry Out Loud,” Logsdon said. “We can see the momentum growing each year and we hope to get a student to the national competition!”
Sophomore Grayson Merrick won the school competition in a highly competitive field of poets. He spent a lot of time preparing his poems for the class and school competitions.
“I spent a lot of time scrolling different collections on the Poetry Out Loud website, looking for one that really clicked,” Merrick said. “That’s when I found the first poem I really enjoyed, “Try to Praise the Mutilated World”. I practiced it a lot in my room, performing it in the classroom was the first time I did it in front of an audience.”
Merrick will be heading to Frankfort in the coming months for the state competition. Merrick has already started perfecting his two poems and memorizing a third poem for the state competition.
Here were the finalists….
4th Place: Xavier Mudd (Freshman)
3rd Place: Jake McIntyre (Senior)
2nd Place: Logan Effinger (Freshman)
and the winner of the 2024 Poetry Out Loud School Competition is…Grayson Merrick (Sophomore).
Best of luck to Grayson Merrick as he moves on to the State competition on March 14 for a chance to compete in Nationals in Washington D.C. in May!
