Monday, February 26, 2007
Some news for Garrett Simpson! Apparently, we have a television star in our midst! Good luck, again, to Garrett!
Time Warner Cable, New York State Alliance for Arts Education, announce partnership
Albany, NY - A partnership between Time Warner Cable and the New York State Alliance for Arts Education (NYSAAE) will put talented students from nineteen New York State high schools squarely in the limelight, as they compete in the state finals of the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest.
Officials announced today that Time Warner Cable has signed on to be media sponsor of the program, administered in New York by NYSAAE. In that role, the cable television company will videotape the state-level Poetry Out Loud competition, to be held at the New York State Museum in Albany on March 8, 2007, and air the footage on TW3 - Time Warner Cable’s exclusive local programming channel in the Capital Region. Digital Cable customers throughout the company’s Capital Region service area will also be able to view the competition after March 8th, on Channel 1009, Time Warner’s local Video on Demand channel.
Poetry Out Loud is a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry as they memorize and perform notable poems in a series of competitions that begin in the classroom and will culminate with national championships in Washington, D.C. later this spring. The program is presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
More than 210,000 students from 21 New York State schools have participated in the Poetry Out Loud program this year on the way to the March 8th state finals. In the Capital Region, high school students from Schodack, North Colonie, Emma Willard, Vorheeseville, Shenendehowa, Mohanasen, Duanesburg, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk, Watervliet, Niskayuna and Schenectady school districts will take part in the state competition. In the March 8th event the State Museum, contestants will recite works selected from an anthology of more than 400 classic and contemporary poems.
"Time Warner Cable is proud to partner with NYSAAE in support of Poetry Out Loud," said Stephen Pagano, President of Time Warner Cable’s Albany Division. "We congratulate all the many students and teachers who have dedicated their time and energy to exhibit the importance of arts in education."
Time Warner Cable’s sponsorship of Poetry Out Loud will serve both to showcase and recognize the top talent in the state contest and to help spread awareness of the now-two-year-old competition among students and schools across New York, said Amy Williams, Executive Director of NYSAAE.
"In addition to encouraging students to delve deeply into great works of literature, Poetry Out Loud also offers them the opportunity to develop their skills as public speakers, and Time Warner Cable is giving them the perfect platform to do that," Williams said.
The winner of the Poetry Out Loud New York State finals will receive $200, and the winner’s school will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. One runner-up will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library. The State Champion of Poetry Out Loud will also be sent on an all expense-paid trip to compete in the National Finals in Washington, DC. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals will award a total of $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends, with a $20,000 college scholarship for the Poetry Out Loud National Champion.
posted by Brian Stumbaugh # 9:04 AM 
