SHSNews

By Rhiannon Root

            The second annual Seward High "Poetry Out Loud" Student Poetry Recitation Competition was held on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 in Seward High's Little Theater. There were 23 contestants in the competition, each recited a poem from the selection of 400 on the "Poetry Out Loud" website. The contest was sponsored by the Seward Arts Council and the Seward High English Department locally, on the state level by the Nebraska Humanities Council and on the national level by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Poetry Foundation.

            Each student presented a prepared poem with an introduction of the poem's title and author. The Seward Arts Council presented medals and cash awards to the winners in the contest.

            The winners included Mani Drohman, a Sophomore who recited Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky", Ciara McCormack, a Senior and first runner-up recited "Queen's Cemetery, Setting Sun" by Lawrence Felinghetti and Holly Kozisek-Seher received second runner up with "Backdrop Addresses Cowboy" by Margaret Atwood. Also honored were Jacob Perkins-Best Senior Presentation, with his presentation of "The Bloody Sire" by Robinson Jeffers, John Wiemer-Best Junior with his presentation of Emma Lazarus's "The New Colossus" and Best Sophomore Presentation was awarded to Amber Schmersal who recited "The Tyger" by William Blake.

            The 23 students competing included: Eric Heinicke, Nathan Broker, Evan Canning, Ryan Coufal, Josh Luff, Jaime Gabel, Josh McKey, Tanner Smith, John Wiemer, Jenna Hoins, Becca Monike, Karl Luebbe, Britton Miller, Dalton Wignall, Mandi Drohman, Amber Schmersal, Robert Kolterman, Holly Kozisek-Scher, Paul D. Meyers, Josh Moravec, Ciara McCormack, Jacob Perkins and Rhiannon Root.

            The judges for the contest were Connie Atkinson, Katie Wright, both from Seward, and Jenny Boyer of Doane College in Crete. Accuracy Judge was Nancy Schulz of East Butler and Prompter was Ashley Panwitz of Concordia University in Seward. Clark Kolterman, Seward High School Speech and English teacher served as event chair.

            Mandi Drohman will go on to represent Seward High at the State "Poetry Out Loud" recitation contest held in Lincoln at the Sheldon Art Gallery in the spring of 2008. She will compete to represent Nebraska at the national "Poetry Out Loud" contest in Washington D.C. Twenty high schools in Nebraska have been invited to participate in this state wide event.