LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Arts Council and Lake County Poet Laureate Georgina Marie Guardado invite the public to attend the 2022 virtual Lake County Poetry Out Loud Competition.

The virtual event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 5, at 2 p.m. via Zoom.

The meeting ID is 863 6682 4037, pass code is POL.

For 2022, competing schools are Middletown High School, Upper Lake High School and Kelseyville High School’s Poetry Club.

Local teachers Libby Stetson, Radie Krueger, Alyosha Taylor-Bourgea, and Middletown High School Poetry Out Loud Coach and county representative for California Poets in the Schools Michele Krueger, have been diligently working with their students for this program despite navigating a global pandemic and obstacles educators face day to day.

Local poets Pamela Bordisso, Brenda Yeager, Jessyca Lytle and Gary Maes will judge this year’s county competition.

Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide program made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation, with the state of California’s program also being supported by the California Arts Council.

This program encourages the nation's youth to learn about poetry through memorization, performance and competition.

Participants master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, learn about literary history and contemporary life, and compete for more than $100,000 in awards.

Since the program’s inception in 2005, millions of students and thousands of teachers across the nation have participated, and it begins at the classroom level.

The program culminates every year with classroom and school competitions. School champions are invited to perform publicly and participate in the countywide competition where they can compete for the chance to represent Lake County at the state level.

State winners then move on to compete at the national level. Every level of the competition has opportunity for both notoriety and cash prizes. Both the 2022 state and national finals are also slated to take place virtually.

Since 2007, the Lake County Arts Council has administered the Poetry Out Loud program and hosted its countywide competition.

The executive director of the LCAC, Barbara Clark, is instrumental in offering this program for Lake County.

Guardado, Lake County’s poet laureate, became the Poetry Out Loud Coordinator in 2020, after serving as a competition judge in 2018 and 2019.

The Lake County Arts Council and participating schools hope to see many community members at the virtual event to support poetry and our youth.