Arts4MC
Liliana Papandreopoulos pictured after county competition
Freshman Lily Papandreopoulos competed in the 2025 Poetry Out Loud competition in January. Poetry Out Loud is a national arts program who partners with The National Endowment for the Arts. In the school round she placed first and at the county level she placed third. I was lucky to be able to meet and talk to her about her journey. We started from the beginning of her love of poetry which started out in eighth grade when the class participated in a poetry slam at the end of the year. This started her passion for “performing poems and expressing her feelings through words”, and ultimately drove her to compete this year. In the first round, at PGHS, with her friends watching, she felt very comfortable and supported. Lily performed “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou and “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar. She describes her first poem to be very powerful and believes it to be about freedom. Lily explained that her second poem, “We Wear The Mask” is about pretending everything is okay when it truly is not. Performing the same pieces, Lily went to the Marina Library for the county round. Unlike the school level, there were “cameras and there was a microphone and they introduced well known poet judges.” Everything seemed very official. According to the Poetry Out Loud website, for judging, one person has an accuracy sheet and their job is to mark any incorrect words. The other judges fill out an evaluation sheet with four criterias; physical presence, voice and articulation, interpretation, evidence of understanding, and overall performance. While Lily was judged twice using these score sheets, she never saw them. With five schools there, she placed third putting PGHS on the ranks! Lily hopes to continue her poetry journey by starting to write her own poems and finding other slam poetry opportunities. Thank you Lily. We look forward to seeing what you do in the future.