Poetry Out Loud kicks off its eighth year in Washington

On March 10, 2012, a young high school student stepped into the soft spotlight on the Rialto Theater stage in Tacoma, Wash., and said “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and/coarse and strong and cunning.” The words belonged to Carl Sandburg, but they were spoken by Langston Ward, a Mead High School student representing Eastern Washington in the Poetry Out Loud state finals.

Ward was one of more than 20,000 students from 68 Washington high schools to participate in Poetry Out Loud last year. The national program – organized by Eastern Washington Univers...