Jackson Free Press

JACKSON — Lawson Marchetti, a junior at Jackson Preparatory School, will join 52 other students from across the country in the national finals of the Poetry Out Loud competition on May 3 and 4 in Washington, D.C.

Poetry Out Loud, the nation's largest youth poetry recitation competition, is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, which encourages high school students to learn classic and contemporary poetry.

Marchetti, 17, started in the school-wide section of the contest before he advanced through the district competition and became one of nine students—three from each school district—to compete on the state level. Marchetti won the state contest with recitals of "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July" by Billy Collins, "Novel" by Arthur Rimbaud and "every single day" by John Straley.

"I had actually never read any of those poems before this competition," Marchetti told the Jackson Free Press. "I didn't even have a particular interest in poetry before all this, but I've found it to be a wonderful experience and have since started reading poetry for fun. I feel like it can open a lot of doors for me."

Participants in Poetry out Loud are judged on qualities such as voice and articulation, dramatic factor, accuracy, understanding of the material, word flow and natural presentation of the recited poem.

"Your goal is to communicate the poem, not to act or play the part of a character," Marchetti said.

The Poetry Out Loud semifinals will be Tuesday, May 3, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University (730 21st St. N.W.) in Washington, D.C. Nine finalists will advance to the national finals, also held in Lisner Auditorium, on Wednesday, May 4, from 7 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. Poetry fans who can't attend the event in person can cheer on their state champions with a live, one-time-only webcast of both the semifinals and the finals.

"I'm excited to get to see Washington, D.C.," Marchetti said. "This will be a new experience for me, whether I win or not. I encourage people to find poetry that speaks to them and get exposed to the arts. It's an insightful medium, and I'm grateful to have been a part of a program like this."

For more information on the webcast, call 202-682-5606 or visit arts.gov. Schools interested in registering for the 2016-2017 Poetry Out Loud contest should visit www.poetryoutloud.org.