Join us on February 3, 2025, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM for the always powerful Poetry Out Loud competition!
Poetry Out Loud is a national literary arts program that connects young people to great poetry. The program gives schools free educational materials and hosts a dynamic poetry recitation competition for high school students across the United States. Students compete at the school, regional, state, then national levels for the chance to win college scholarship funds.
2025 is our 18th year hosting New Jersey’s Region 1 Poetry Out Loud competition—when high school students from South Jersey deliver deeply-felt readings of great poems, of all eras and styles. The Region 1 winner advances to the state competition, and, from there, has the chance to win the national-level award of $50,000 in college funds.
Poetry Out Loud is led by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation in partnership with state and jurisdictional arts agencies across the country. In New Jersey, Poetry Out Loud is a project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Count Basie Center for the Arts, with a growing network of regional partners, Including RCCA, that implement the program statewide.
RCCA has been the NJ Poetry Out Loud Region One Partner since 2007.
REGION ONE INCLUDES Gloucester, Burlington, Camden & Mercer counties.
High schools in these counties can get involved in this nationwide recitation contest and scholarship program.
2024 – 2025 Calendar
NOVEMBER 2024
November 19th, 2024 | Registration open for school champions
JANUARY 2025
January 21st, 2025 | Deadline to register school champion
FEBRUARY 2025
February 3, 2025 | Region 1 Competition | Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts
February 4, 2025 | Region 5 Competition | South Orange Performing Arts Center
February 6, 2025 | Region 6 Competition | Passaic County Community College
February 10, 2025 | Region 4 Competition | Mayo Performing Arts Center
February 12, 2025 | Region 3 Competition | Grunin Center at Ocean County College
February 13, 2025 | Region 2 Competition | Stockton University Performing Arts Center
March 12, 2025 | NJPOL 2025 State Finals
May 5-7, 2025 | Poetry Out Loud National Finals
To learn more about Poetry Out Loud visit www.njpol.org