(WASHINGTON, DC) Recently, Italy Ja rae Whitehead, an 11th grade student at Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy in Elizabeth, NJ, was named the 2022 New Jersey Poetry Out Loud champion. Whitehead is now advancing to the Poetry Out Loud National Semifinals, which will be broadcast on Sunday, May 1, 2022, on arts.gov. Whitehead will compete in the 1st semifinal, beginning at 12:00pm ET / 11:00am CT / 9:00am PT.
Meetings
Fayette County Farmland Protection Board â The Fayette County Farmland Protection Board will hold a regular meeting at the New Roots Community Farm at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 18 for the transaction of board business. The public is cordially invited to attend.
Bridge Day Commission The Bridge Day Commission will meet at 1:30 p.m. in the county commission chambers at the Fayette County Courthouse on the following dates: May 19, June 16, July 21, Aug. 19 and Sept. 15. Bridge Day 2021 will be held on Saturday, Oct. 16. For more on Bridge Day, visit officialbridgeday.com.
Legal Aid Board Meeting Legal Aid of West Virginia (LAWV) will hold its quarterly board of directors meeting at 12 p.m. on Friday, May 21. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the board meeting will be held virtually. Board meetings are typically open to the public in person, so if you would like to attend this board meeting, please reach out to Amy Crawford at Legal Aid of WV by calling 304-343-3013
Lily Nguyen, a senior at Lancaster Country Day School, was named the winner of the 2021 Poetry Out Loud competition, South Central PARTners at Millersville University announced in a press release last week. The regional contest is part of a national program to foster students appreciation for poetry though memory and performance.
âWinning this contest was honestly a huge surprise for me,â Nguyen wrote in an email. âBy helping me strengthen my love and skill of poetry recitation, (Poetry Out Loud) has been an extremely rewarding experience that I believe every student should take part in.âÂ
For the regional contest, Nguyen and five other students from across Lancaster, Berks and Schuylkill counties were tasked with memorizing and reciting poems selected from the Poetry Out Loud online and print anthologies. Due to COVID-19, recitations were recorded and submitted digitally. The studentâs video entries were judged by a panel of poets and creatives includi