Write Out Loud Presents

| April 3, 2017 | 0 Comments

A literature inspired arts competition for Students

This is the work of Natalie Sanchez.

This is the work of Natalie Sanchez.

Write Out Loud – an organization founded in 2007 with a commitment to inspire, challenge and entertain by reading short stories aloud for a live audience – announces the 2017 Read – Imagine – Create awards ceremony. The event will take place at 7 p.m., Monday, April 10 at the Old Town Theatre, located at 4040 Twiggs Street in Old Town San Diego.

For this annual program, participating middle and high school students read any work by Emily Dickinson. They re-imagine the images and themes from literature and create a project in an artistic medium that is important to them. This year, Write Out Loud received nearly 400 submissions in three categories from 14 San Diego middle and high schools. The top three submissions in each category will receive cash prizes with special recognition for selected other entries. Visual Art finalists will be on display throughout the month of April at Mission Valley Library, El Cajon Library, Skyline Library and Linda Vista Library.

Write Out Loud Artistic Director, Veronica Murphy shared “with the continued cutbacks in arts funding throughout our schools, programs like Read – Imagine – Create play a much needed role. Encouraging students to read and then connect those literary concepts to an artistic outlet that engages them instills a lifelong love of both literature and artistic expression. It’s astonishing that out of hundreds of entries the concepts are so different, unique to each student. It is a joy to see such well thought out and personal artistic inspirations, and we look forward to sharing them with the community.”

The categories include all submissions inspired by reading Emily Dickinson:

1. Literary Art: Stories, poetry, monologues, dialogues, biographies, plays, etc.
2. Visual Art: Illustrations, paintings, sculpture, books, mixed media, surf/skateboard designs, etc.
3. Performance/Media Art: Dance, Music composition, film, claymation, etc.

In 2017, 14 area schools participated, including Community Montessori School, Dehesha Charter School, Granite Hills High School, Grant K-8, Grossmont Middle College High School, Mesa Verde Middle School, Morse High School, New Dawn High School, Rhoades School, Serra High School, Sacred Heart Parish School, San Diego SCPA, Southwest High School and Standley Middle School.

Judges for Read – Imagine – Create are chosen from professional artists from each submission category. This year – judges include Mara Fenner, Jo Lynn Murphy, Susan Platt, Judy Reeves, Nellie Scott, Carey Wall, Steven J. Warner and Samantha Wilson.

In addition to coordinating Read – Imagine – Create for middle and high school students, Write Out Loud provides the community five other core programs serving over 16,000 people annually. Additional programs include Story Concerts, TwainFest – a free literary celebration in August in Old Town, Stories for seniors, StoryBox Theatre for elementary students and Poetry Out Loud for high school students.

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Category: Education, Local News

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