In response to national changes to Poetry Out Loud’s anthology this year, Pinewood English teacher Holly Coty advocated to reuse the prior one at the school and county levels.

   The national program underwent changes this year with the Poetry Foundation’s anthology, which is a collection of hundreds of poems used in Poetry Out Loud events. The reworked anthology heavily centers public-domain poems, limiting access to copyrighted material. According to Coty, the new collection lacked a variety of perspectives.

   “The reality of public domain poetry is that while there are wonderful poems there, there are no contemporary voices at all and much less diversity in the anthology,” Coty said.

   Coty participated in state-level meetings with the California Arts Council to advocate for the continued use of the 2024-2025 anthology, which included a wider range of voices, at local competitions. While students were granted permission to use the prior anthology at the school and county levels, those who advanced to state competition were required to use the public domain national anthology.

   Due to the competition’s changes, fewer schools joined the county competition this year. Typically, up to nine schools attend, but this year, only two other schools competed: Live Oak Academy and Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy. As a result, each school was allowed to send three students instead of two.

  Despite the program’s shortcomings, Coty said she values its focus on recitation and interpretation.

   “I like the fact that students can find voices that might express ideas that they have empathy with … and how they can use their voices to be expressive when they’re reciting is very empowering,” Coty said.

   Junior Alisha Ramani placed first at the school competition with her recitations of “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen and “Thoughtless Cruelty” by Charles Lamb. She felt that the experience performing allowed contestants to connect with voices they wouldn’t have otherwise identified with.

   “We get to breathe new life into poems and incorporate our own voices into this art that has been around for so long,” Ramani said.

   Ryan Peng, who placed third at both the school and county levels with his recitations of “Hunger Moon” by Jane Cooper and “Summer” by Chen Chen, said he did not expect to place. 

   “I was shocked and happy to be able to get such a rank,” Peng said. “Even so, I think the awards were only a small part of the contest’s meaningfulness.”

   He said the most challenging aspect was perfecting his performance. 

   “The hardest part of the competition was … being able to understand the meaning or concept of the poem and to express that to the judges in an engaging and meaningful way,” Peng said.

   In spite of the many hurdles of this year’s Poetry Out Loud competition, Coty didn’t want to pull out from the competition.

   “We didn’t want to lose momentum with the program, so we asked permission from the students to be able to use the older anthology,” Coty said.