West River Eagle

Sioux Falls senior wins National Poetry Out Loud Competition



Senior Rahele Megosha of Washington High School in Sioux Falls won $20,000 by coming in first out of seven finalists in the national 16th Annual Poetry Out Loud competition after winning the statewide competition. Both were held virtually this year. Finalists competed by reciting three different poems.

Megosha read “Breakfast” by Mary Lamb as part of her statewide competition entry and “Fairy Tale with Laryngitis and Resignation Letter” by Jehanne Dubrow as part of her national competition entry. In an interview with Vanessa Gomez of Dakota News Now, Megosha stated she also writes poems in her journal as a private expression of her creativity and is drawn to poetry for its ability to take simple, mundane topics and turn them into something exquisite and useful.

As part of Megosha’s award, Washington High School was also awarded $500 for poetry materials. Separately from the Poetry Out Loud competition, 17-year-old Megosha was also awarded a full-ride scholarship to Columbia University in New York. With the goal of becoming a research chemist, Megosha plans to major in biochemistry, but hasn’t decided whether she wants to minor in human rights or African American Studies.

The South Dakota Arts Council receives a grant and partners with Arts for South Dakota & South Dakota Public Broadcasting to run the Poetry Out Loud programming, which is a national arts education program that helps students build self-confidence and public speaking skills while learning literary heritage. The program is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and state and jurisdictional arts agencies.

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