-Minnesota State Arts Board - Minnesota North Star
National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation present: Poetry Out Loud - National Recitation Contest

Minnesota 2012 Poetry Out Loud Champions

Yemi Ajagbe

Yemi Ajagbe

On March 19, 2012, eighteen students representing nine regions from around the state competed for the title of state champion at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Yemi Ajagbe of Woodbury High School, (Woodbury, Minnesota) was named the winner with her recitation of End of Science by Lisel Muller, When You Are Old by Willaim Butler Yeats, and Hymn tto God the Father by John Donne.

Ajagbe went on to represent Minnesota at the national finals in Washington, DC, on May 13–15, 2012, competing with fifty-two other champions from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

  • 2nd Place: Angela Yang—Woodbury High School, Woodbury
  • 3rd Place: Andrew Wilson—ARTech - Northfield School of Arts & Technology, Northfield
  • 4th Place: Fabian Brenes—Big Lake High School, Big Lake
  • 5th Place: Rowan Ivy Johnson—TrekNorth High School, Bemidji
  • 6th Place: Thomas McPhee—Morris Area High School, Morris

Other state finalists incluided (in alphabetical order)

  • Sagal Ali—Augsburg Fairview Academy, Minneapolis
  • Chandra Bouma—Mankato East Senior High School, Mankato
  • Anastasia Brodsky—Mounds View High School, Mounds View
  • Ellen Dymit—Washburn High School, Minneapolis
  • Alyson Enderle—Mankato East Senior High School, Mankato
  • David Kamper—Marshall High School, Duluth
  • Jennifer Kim—Century High School, Rochester
  • Christine Menge—Blaine High School, Blaine
  • LaQueshia Moran—Gordon Parks High School, Saint Paul
  • Kaija Roy—TrekNorth High School, Bemidji
  • Caleb Sanderson—Morris Area HighSchool, Morris
  • Nafisa Warsame—Ubah Medical Academy, Hopkins
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