Rize Simmons (12) has done it again: he qualified for the national Poetry Out Loud competition for the second time after his state performances on March 17.
Simmons began his poetry journey his freshman year in his English class with Kjersten Johnson (staff) after memorizing a poem and being offered extra credit if he performed it at the school’s Poetry Out Loud competition.
“I remember initially I was so impressed with him his freshmen year because this was a project I was introducing in ninth advanced English and he just ran with it,” Johnson said. “When Rize showed up with his it was like, ‘Dang, he took this seriously and he rocked it.'”
The Poetry Out Loud competition is a national program in which high school students memorize poems to present in front of an audience and judges. They must prepare three poems, though they only perform their third if they become a finalist.
Simmons has competed in Poetry Out Loud all four years of his high school experience. Freshman year he placed first at Windsor and went to state, where he took third place; his sophomore he had a slight setback and didn’t place in the school competiton. Junior and senior years, he made it all the way to nationals.
Simmons has memorized a wide variety of poems for the competitions, so he has developed unique ways to prepare.
“I nail the memorization down first cause I want to be fully memorized because then I am able to dive deeper into the meaning of the poem,” Simmons said. “Usually my process goes memorization then I work on my diction, like where I want to take pauses and how I want to emphasize certain parts. The last thing I do is work on the motion and movement to the poem.”
Simmons is practicing and preparing three poems for the national competition, which will be May 5-7 in Washington D.C. He has chosen to present “The Song of the Smoke” by W. E. B. Du Bois, “Eddie Priest’s Barbershop and Notary” by Kevin Young and “Dr. Booker T. Washington to the National Negro Business League” by Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr.
“The first poem that I chose is ‘The Song of the Smoke’ by W. E. B. Du Bois, because I did that one last year at the state competition, but when I competed at nationals last year it was my third poem. I got out the first round so I didn’t get to do that one, so I definitely want to show it off this year,” Simmons said.
Johsnon is the adviser for Windsor’s Poetry Out Loud competition and has helped Simmons get involved in his journey with poetry.
“It’s been an honor to see the journey of Rize throughout this and it’s been a wonderful lesson to me as well for persevering through hard things but having fun with it at the same time,” Johnson said. “I hope he wins. I want Rize to feel like he put in his best effort and as long as he does that, then that’s all I want for him.”
Kale Frederick (12) is one of Simmons’ close friends and has watched his progression with poetry since their freshman year.
“I have known Rize since elementary school at charter so I have known him for a while,” Frederick said. “Rize is a good leader and just a good person to be around. He is very determined and can do whatever he puts his mind on.”
Simmons competes in Washington D.C. in May and hopefully goes in and wins it all.
