Mariah Rowdy, a junior at Reynolds High School, has won the 2014 Poet Laureate competition.
“I am so surprised,” Rowdy said. “There are so many amazing poets here.”
Rowdy’s poem – “Black and White” – explored what it was like to have one parent who is black and one parent who is white and to find yourself not quite in either world.
Her parents – Norman Rowdy and Karen Lordeman-Rowdy – were both there. Rowdy, who plans to become an elementary school teacher, is a member of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Board.
“She is so smart and so courageous,” said Superintendent Beverly Emory.
Twenty-four students wrote poems for the seventh annual Poet Laureate Project, which is jointly sponsored by Forsyth Education Partnership and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. First place came with $100, second with $75 and third with $50.
In the first phase of the competition, judges read the students’ poems and awarded points based on content. Later, students recited or read their poems – some did a little of both – to the audience in the school system’s Education Building, and judges awarded additional points for presentation. The combined scores determined the winners.
