Casey Goggin from Pinecrest High School in Moore County is the North Carolina champion of Poetry Out Loud for the second consecutive year and will compete in the national finals next month in Washington, D.C.
The 16-year-old Goggin’s wowed the judges with his recitations of the complex poems The Bad Old Days by Kenneth Rexroth, Chorus Sacerdotum by Fulke Greville and To Elsie by William Carlos Williams.
He was challenged by 33 other students from across the state in the annual recitation contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and coordinated by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.
Schools participating in the program received supplemental curriculum materials from the NEA including online anthologies, a program guide to help instructors teach recitation and performance, an audio CD featuring distinguished actors and writers, promotional and media guides and access to a comprehensive website.
During the competition held Saturday, March 15, at the Greensboro Public Library the students talked with North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti, and heard readings by the distinguished panel of judges including semifinal judges Anjail Rashida Ahmad, Krista Bremer, Marisa Estelrich, Nathan Ross Freeman and Jackie Shelton Green. Judges for the finals are Dasan Ahanu, Malaika King Albrecht and Jacinta White.
