ArtsPath at Indiana University of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce its 2024 regional Poetry Out Loud winner, Shaurya Gulati.
Shaurya is a junior at the Kiski School, where he excels at math and science and also loves Latin. An avid chess player, he has competed in several interstate and national tournaments. Along with playing the trombone, Shaurya is also trained in Indian classical vocal music and enjoys giving solo vocal performances at the DGB-Pittsburgh Senior Center in Monroeville. He intends to pursue an education in some form of math or engineering.
Shaurya’s three memorized recitations were The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, You, If No one Else by Tino Villanueva, and Sonnet 29: When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes by William Shakespeare.
The two other contestants were Maya Guthridge, a ninth grader from DuBois Area High School who recited Because I Will Be Silenced by Ha Jin, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth, and Fire and Ice by Robert Frost; and Zachary Simeone, a junior in the Reach Cyber Charter School who recited One Girl by Sappho, The New Decalogue by Ambrose Bierce, and if time is queer/and memory is trans/and my hands hurt in the cold/then by Raquel Salas Rivera.
Interpretation judges included Gretchen Barbor, a retired high school English/theater teacher; Brian Jones, professor of Theatre at IUP; Michael Schwartz, professor of Theater History, Playwriting, and Improvisation at IUP; and Daniel Weinstein, associate professor of English at IUP. The Accuracy judge was Carrie Bishop, the Access and Media Services librarian and associate professor at IUP Libraries; and the prompter was Kristen Koehler, the executive director of the Lively Arts in the College of Arts and Humanities at IUP.
Providing music on piano before and after the competition, as well as between recitations, was IUP student Lily Carone, a senior biology major and music minor.
Shaurya will next compete in the Pennsylvania state competition at the State Museum in Harrisburg on March 4, with the winner moving on to represent Pennsylvania in the national competition, held April 30–May 2, in Washington, DC.
Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life. Poetry Out Loud is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and the state and jurisdictional arts agencies.
Since its inception in 2005 by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud has grown to reach more than 5 million students and 68,000 teachers from 17,000 schools and organizations in every state, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.
ArtsPath is one of 14 regional arts-in-education programs that, in addition to presenting the Poetry Out Loud program, partner with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in placing high-quality, professionally active visual, performing, media, and literary artists in educational and community settings for extended, in-depth residency activities. The ArtsPath service region includes Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson counties, as well as the Dubois Area School District for Poetry Out Loud.
For more on artist residencies, Poetry Out Loud, or other arts-related services, contact the coordinator for Arts-in-Education Services, Jeff Wacker, at jwacker@iup.edu, or call 724-357-4565.
ArtsPath and Poetry Out Loud are made possible through the AIE Partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. It is funded by the citizens of Pennsylvania through an annual legislative appropriation and administered locally by ArtsPath through the College of Arts and Humanities at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.