Senior, Deborah Umwiza, chosen as Laconia Christian Academy’s Poetry Out Loud winner

LACONIA — For the second year in a row, Laconia Christian Academy announced Deborah Umwiza as the school’s winner of the 2021 NH Poetry Out Loud Competition. David Bugingo was the runner up.

According to Jennifer Bleiler, Humanities teacher and school coordinator for the contest, each student spends several weeks selecting a poem, analyzing it, memorizing it, and bringing it to life through recitation. The school competition is held in the gym, and local poets are brought in, teaching artists and other community members to serve as judges. The judges score each performance, according to a Poetry Out Loud standardized rubric. 

Deborah moved on to win the regional contest and competed as one of the final four in the final round of the State Competition. Unfortunately, she wasn’t chosen as a finalist to move on to represent the Granite State in the national competition. Deborah recited “All This and More” by Mary Karr, “Bright Copper Kettles” by Vijay Seshadri, and “Fate” by Carolyn Wells. When asked how and why she chose the poems she did, Deborah explained that each poem called to her in a different manner.

“I chose “All This and More” because it's mood was unlike any other poem I'd done before for POL. It has a very intense, almost angry tone to it. Its lines were also not easy to understand at first which made me more eager to decipher them. The final line in the poem "that's why you clawed your way back to this life" ultimately made my decision to choose to perform it. The dreamy but almost chilling energy of “Bright Copper Kettles” drew me in instantly. The theme of the poem concerning how we think of the dead was not one I had ever encountered in any literary piece. A friend of mine had performed the piece at a past competition so I was also welcome to the challenge of creating my own unique voice for it. And lastly, with only a couple weeks left before the state finals, I'm not going to lie that choosing “Fate” as my third poem had a lot to do with being able to master it quickly. “Fate” was not as complex in the language or themes behind it, but rather in finding the right voice. It forced me to become a storyteller rather than just a reciter.”