Heritage High School Poetry Out Loud Winner

March 29, 2023 UPDATE:

Evalynn Bogusz, a senior at Heritage High School, is Virginia’s new Poetry Out Loud Champion. This is Evalynn’s third year advancing to the Virginia State Final for Poetry Out Loud. By winning the Poetry Out Loud championship, Evalynn won $500 for her school’s library for the purchase of poetry books. Dani Vitello, a sophomore at Woodgrove, also competed in the state finals.

Senior Evalynn Bogusz recently won Heritage High School’s 2022 Poetry Out Loud Competition sponsored by the National English Honor Society. Heritage hosted the Poetry Out Loud Competition in December. 

Bogusz will advance to the Semifinal Poetry Out Loud Competition on Saturday, February 4. Bogusz also won the competition during her freshman, sophomore and junior years. She earned the regional winner title during her sophomore year and won the VA State Semifinals her junior year, advancing her to the VA State Finals in both years.

Ashnil Dasan, a freshmen, earned the runner-up title at Heritage for his remarkable oratory skills. Dasan will prepare for the semifinal competition if Bogusz is unable to submit her recitations.  

The Heritage High School finalists who competed in the Heritage High School Poetry Out Loud competition included freshmen Lucy Adair, Reese Cortez, Ashnil Dasan (runner-up), Quinton Holder, Xic Mainhart, Anderson Marsden, Amanda Martinez, Alina McCollum, Mackenzie Nuttall and Rayne Wingard.

The Annual Poetry Out Loud Competition is a national program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Through the expressive recitation of poems, students bring poems to life utilizing their rich literary tradition of storytelling. Performers are judged on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding and overall performance. School winners from across the commonwealth will be competing in one of four randomly assigned semi-finalist contests of ten to twelve students. Winners will advance to the Virginia Poetry Out Loud State Finals in March to compete for a spot at the Poetry Out Loud National Finals in Washington D.C. in May. For more information, visit the Virginia Commision for the Arts Website.

Published January 10, 2022