Home to over 290 undergraduate programs in visual and performing arts, SUNY campuses are where art thrives. Diverse artists are empowered to create vibrant art that enhances student life and enriches higher education. From visualizing how to address conflict in safe ways to revolutionizing the very definition of art, SUNY students and faculty have been using art to make positive impacts on their communities for a long time.
This year, SUNY is continuing its ongoing partnership with Poetry Out Loud, created by the Teachers and Writers Collaborative in New York State to help high school students learn how to write and perform poetry.
Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation competition that provides students in grades 9-12 with the platform to master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.
These students begin by performing poems, selected from the Poetry Out Loud anthology, in a classroom setting. From there, they progress to regional competitions, state finals, and then national finals. As students move through each level, they are given the opportunity to travel throughout the country.
Regional competitions that will decide who moves on to nationals will take place on the following SUNY campuses.
- Onondaga Community College– January 15th
- SUNY New Paltz– January 29th
- Nassau Community College– January 31st
- Stony Brook University– February 3rd
- Hudson Valley Community College– February 5th
- SUNY Global Center– February 7th
- SUNY Oneonta– February 10th
- College at Brockport– February 12th
- Fashion Institute of Technology– February 15th
The New York State final will take place on Saturday, March 7th, at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
These performances are free and open to the public, so you are all invited out to support our future poets and artists as they showcase these skills.
When I think of the future of poetry, I feel myself a little bit hopeless. Poetry is weak against all contemporary fast-food craziness. In this new era, everything is consumed so fast, so rapidly. Social media and internet is killing poetry and poems. Young people do not have enough patient ant tolerance to read and understand poems like before. Maybe the world is changing and poetry should change and it adapt itself to this crazy, new era.
100 years ago, poets were like movie stars or rock stars of today. They were very popular among different circles and reciting a poem was like an ultimate art form. Now, there are many competitors of poems like movies, TV, social media, internet. While poetry should be above all and poets should use these means of communication, we see less and less time that is allocated to poetry in these mediums. That is why it is so important that universities uphold poetry and put it a high place. Congratulations for your sincere efforts.