The New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence hosted the 25th anniversary of Poetry Out Loud (POL) earlier this month at the Whitney Young Auditorium at New Rochelle High School. Mayor Noam Bramson emceed the event, which featured Westchester Country Youth Poet Laureate, New Rochelle High School sophomore Harmony Hopwood, left, and 80 young poets from our schools.
Board of Education President William Iannuzzi and District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond both read poems before the student poets came to the stage. Ten students from each of the six elementary schools and both middle schools, representing grades three through six are selected.
“We were so excited to see the poets read their poems out loud and live for the 25th Anniversary,” said fund board member Meri Hilton. “And we are so grateful to the teachers and administrators in each building who serve as our coordinators. We were thrilled to have Harmony, an alumni of Poetry Out Loud, as our special guest. It's important that the student poets see that they too can become Westchester Youth Poet Laureates.”