Poetry Out Loud Maine State Final

On February 27, ten students, out of an incredible beginning total of 2700, from high schools across Maine competed in the state finals of Poetry Out Loud at the Camden Opera House.

The final, organized by the Maine Arts Commission, was a closely contested event that highlighted the exceptional talents of Maine’s students. At the end of the evening, William Whitham of Bangor High School was ultimately selected as state champion.

William now goes on to represent Maine in the national finals in Washington D.C. at the end of April, where he will compete for a $20,000 college scholarship.

Highlights of the finals, that include extended interviews with the students, can be seen on YouTube.

The Maine Arts Commission outreach continued this month as Darrell Bulmer returned to Brunswick’s Frontier Café on Monday night to be a part of another evening of presentations to artists.

This evening concentrated on legal issues that face artists and the newly reemerged Maine Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts were on hand to demystify copyright law.

The 90 minute presentation from Charles P Bacall, Esq. from Verril Dana LLP has to be one of the most interesting presentations made to artists for a long time. The audience was instructed to bring their questions, and they followed those instructions to the letter.



At least 50 diverse questions were posed to Charles during his presentation, causing him to extend his presentation to the relief and appreciation of the 50+ audience members.

Darrell captured the entire event on two video cameras and in audio. Once the edited version is available it will be posted on our YouTube page in segments for all to access.

This evening was presented by Five Rivers Arts Alliance who has a series of workshops at Frontier this year.

Poetry Out Loud State Finals

Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest is a program that encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance and competition. It will hold its Maine finals on February 27 at the Camden Opera House. The competition is free to the public and will begin at 5:00 p.m. Felicia Knight will be the host for the evening and Maine’s First Lady, Karen Baldacci, will present the awards to the competing students. As an added bonus, Tim Sample will be on stage throughout the competition bringing a mix of poetry and light hearted humor to the proceedings. Sample, who is more commonly known as a world famous Downeast humorist, will be sharing some of his favorite poems that he has performed including works by Vassalboro author Holman Day.

This contest will decide the Maine state champion, who will receive an all-expenses-paid trip (with a chaperone) to compete in the national finals in Washington, DC, on April 26-April 28, 2009. The National Finals will award a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends. In total, Poetry Out Loud will award more than $100,000 at state- and national-level contests.

Each year around 225,000 students compete in this national competition that produces 53 finalists from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Highlights from last year's competition can be viewed below.

The New Year Begins...

The Maine Arts Commission has begun this year as it ended the last: the reduction in staff due to state budget cuts means it will continue to be busy.

To ease some of the workload the agency has enlisted the help of Kathleen Mundell to oversee the Traditional Arts program. Kathleen holds a Masters Degree in Folklore and has over twenty-five years experience in the fields of public sector folklore and community arts.

Kathleen will begin work immediately to advocate for the traditional arts: She will build the application pool for the agency’s three traditional arts focused grants programs (Sustaining Traditional Arts in the Community, Traditional Arts Apprenticeships, and Traditional Arts Fellowship), and plan a celebration of the 20th year of the Maine Arts Commission's Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program.

The 124th legislative sessions will figure prominently in this week’s plans. The agency’s director will present budget amendments to the Appropriations and Financial Affairs committee on Tuesday; she will make an hour-long presentation to the Governor’s Quality of Place Council on Wednesday, and on Thursday meet with the Governor’s Subcommittee on Tourism to discuss the ongoing importance of the arts in the state’s tourism efforts.