Sussex Academy holds Poetry Out Loud school competition

After two rounds of competition, sophomore Natalia Gatti was named winner of the Sussex Academy Poetry Out Loud contest Dec. 18.

Poetry Out Loud is a national literacy and recitation competition funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Students are scored on presence, speech, understanding, interpretation, poem complexity and accuracy of recitation.

Natalia now goes on to represent Sussex Academy at the state competition, to be held Thursday, Feb. 19, at the Smyrna Opera House.

Last year’s champion, senior Chase Reynolds, served as emcee of the event in which Natalia competed against classmates Carley Couch, Joanna Tsoukalas and Natalie Howard, who was named runner-up. Marissa Davis handled lighting and music for the student-run competition, which was coordinated by English teacher Andie Kirtley.

Sussex Academy is a tuition-free, public charter school in Georgetown.