Norwich victorious at poetry competition
TREADWELL – After 27 high school students recited original poems last Friday at the Share the Words 13th annual High School Poetry Competition, the Norwich High School team came out victorious.
The all-day competition took place in the Library & Internet Wing at Bright Hill Literary Center in Treadwell. It was the 10th year in a row that the Norwich team was awarded the top honors, and their coach, English teacher Richard Bernstein, was named Poetry Coach of the Year.
Three Norwich students took home $200 worth of savings bonds and prizes: Lane deCordova won first place and The Nicholas Alicino Award for a Performance Poem. Winning the Bright Hill Award for a Free Verse Poem Addressing Current Events was Josette Felicies; Jeff Wilkinson took second in that category.
Norwich High School poetry team members who also competed in the event were: Patricia McNeil, freshman; Jennifer Elder, senior; and Chelsea Trottier, also a senior. The winning team took home a traveling trophy and a permanent banner in school colors, inscribed with the names of team members and their coach.
Poetry Team member Felicies, who recently moved to Norwich from the Bronx, said writing her poem was “a way to express how much I actually miss being home” and “to break the sterotypes of living in New York City.” The senior plans to attend John Jay College in Manhattan and study criminal justice.
DeCordova, a freshman, said her acting and dancing experience with the Community Players and Amber Perkins School of the Arts “influenced my poems and helped me to be a better performer.”
Wilkinson, a sophomore and second year member of the Poetry Team, took first place last year in the performance category of the Bright Hill Press competition. He said he planned to continue writing poetry and competing.
Individual students from any New York school as well as school teams were invited to compete for prizes. In addition to the savings bonds, the awards included sets of Bright Hill Press books and invitations to a reading at “Word Thursdays” on May 28 in Treadwell and at Delhi’s Art & Soul Festival in August.
The Norwich High School team also competed in a slam held at the Oxford Memorial Library on May 7. And in April, DeCordova and McNeil read their poems to warm up the crowd before the annual “Big O Poetry Slam” held at SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union.
Bernstein said members of the Norwich High School poetry team will also compete at the Blarney Stone Pub in Norwich as part of Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival. The slam, which begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, is free and open to the public.
The all-day competition took place in the Library & Internet Wing at Bright Hill Literary Center in Treadwell. It was the 10th year in a row that the Norwich team was awarded the top honors, and their coach, English teacher Richard Bernstein, was named Poetry Coach of the Year.
Three Norwich students took home $200 worth of savings bonds and prizes: Lane deCordova won first place and The Nicholas Alicino Award for a Performance Poem. Winning the Bright Hill Award for a Free Verse Poem Addressing Current Events was Josette Felicies; Jeff Wilkinson took second in that category.
Norwich High School poetry team members who also competed in the event were: Patricia McNeil, freshman; Jennifer Elder, senior; and Chelsea Trottier, also a senior. The winning team took home a traveling trophy and a permanent banner in school colors, inscribed with the names of team members and their coach.
Poetry Team member Felicies, who recently moved to Norwich from the Bronx, said writing her poem was “a way to express how much I actually miss being home” and “to break the sterotypes of living in New York City.” The senior plans to attend John Jay College in Manhattan and study criminal justice.
DeCordova, a freshman, said her acting and dancing experience with the Community Players and Amber Perkins School of the Arts “influenced my poems and helped me to be a better performer.”
Wilkinson, a sophomore and second year member of the Poetry Team, took first place last year in the performance category of the Bright Hill Press competition. He said he planned to continue writing poetry and competing.
Individual students from any New York school as well as school teams were invited to compete for prizes. In addition to the savings bonds, the awards included sets of Bright Hill Press books and invitations to a reading at “Word Thursdays” on May 28 in Treadwell and at Delhi’s Art & Soul Festival in August.
The Norwich High School team also competed in a slam held at the Oxford Memorial Library on May 7. And in April, DeCordova and McNeil read their poems to warm up the crowd before the annual “Big O Poetry Slam” held at SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union.
Bernstein said members of the Norwich High School poetry team will also compete at the Blarney Stone Pub in Norwich as part of Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival. The slam, which begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, is free and open to the public.
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