(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.
Italy Whitehead, a junior from Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy in Elizabeth, was named State Champion at the 2022 New Jersey Poetry Out Loud (NJPOL) State Finals competition, part of the National Poetry Out Loud recitation program. The virtual adjudication took place on March 1st, and a compilation video broadcast the following day on the NJPOL YouTube channel.