April 2, 2014 — Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie is happy to announce that students from secondary schools across the country will compete in the 2014 Poetry In Voice National Finals. Our Online Semifinals judges — all celebrated Canadian poets — viewed 585 recitation videos before choosing the top 39 students, selecting carefully for criteria such as appropriateness of dramatization and evidence of understanding. The finalists will meet in Vancouver, BC for two days of competition leading to the National Finals on May 9 at the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre. This year, students will also have the opportunity to take a writing workshop with poet and Poetry In Voice Creative Director Damian Rogers as well as enjoy a guided tour of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Founded by Scott Griffin, chairman and founder of the Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry, the annual poetry recitation competition aims to promote the art of poetry recitation in both the classroom and the community.
“The 39 students invited to Vancouver this year have been selected from approximately 30,000 students from over 370 schools from every province across Canada,” said Griffin. “Each is a winner to have reached the finals!”
$25,000 in awards and school stipends will be given at the 2014 Poetry In Voice National Finals. Hosted by Johanne Blais of CBC Radio’s C’est la vie, the finalists will perform on May 9 at 7:00 pm. Tickets from $5 to $10 are available online at https://recite2014.eventbrite.ca/
Students compete in one of three streams — English, Bilingual, or French — and three champions will be named on the night of May 9. The English, Bilingual, and French Champions will each go home with $5,000 and their respective school libraries will be awarded $1,000 ($500 of which is reserved for poetry books). The second-prize winners in each stream take home $1,000, with $500 for the purchase of poetry books awarded to their school libraries. The third-prize winners in each stream will take home $500, and their school libraries will be awarded $250 for the purchase of poetry books.
The English-language judges for the 2014 National Finals are poets Gillian Jerome (Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, co-written with Brad Cran; Red Nest), Parliamentary Poet Laureate Fred Wah (Faking It: Poetics and Hybridity; Sentenced to Light; is a door), and Rita Wong (sybil unrest, co-written with Larissa Lai; forage, and monkeypuzzle).
The French-language judges for the 2014 National Finals are poets Lise Gaboury-Diallo (Homestead, poèmes du cœur de l’Ouest; L’endroit et l’envers; Lointaines, nouvelles; Confessions sans penitence), educator Laurent Fadanni (Cartographie du vertige; Viticulture des gouffres), and Pierre Nepveu (Lignes aériennes; La poésie québécoise, des origines à nos jours, co-edited with Laurent Mailhot; La vie d’un homme, a celebrated biography of poet Gaston Miron).
About Poetry In Voice:
Poetry In Voice is a national recitation competition, reaching across Canada in English and French, for secondary school and Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP) students. It serves to engage students in an appreciation of the beauty of language through poetry, while at the same time instilling a sense of confidence through the art of public speaking.
About The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry:
The Trust was founded in April 2000 by chairman Scott Griffin, along with trustees Margaret Atwood, Carolyn Forché, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson, and David Young. By funding the Griffin Poetry Prize — the world’s largest prize for a first edition single collection of poetry written in, or translated into, English — The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry aims to spark the public’s imagination and raise awareness of the crucial role poetry plays in our cultural life, a mission shared by Poetry In Voice.
Tickets: https://recite2014.eventbrite.ca/