- [Voiceover] Poetry Out Loud is a contest that encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry.

This program helps students best their public speaking skills, build self confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.

J'Kobe Wallace of Minot was North Dakota's 2015 State Poetry Out Loud champion.

- I wandered, lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills when all at once, I saw a crowd.

Poetry Out Loud is an organization that tries to promote poetry within younger learners and schools.

My AP English teacher put it in her curriculum to have Poetry Out Loud within the classroom and then she made it an option for extra credit to be able to perform at a school competition and I won at the school and I was completely surprised.

The opportunity to come to Bismark and compete for my school was available and I thought I'd take it.

With the process of being able to be judged on the Poetry Out Loud standards, they take in account things like complexity of the poem itself, length, difficult language.

One had to be 14 lines or fewer and one had to be written pre-18th century and then the third one didn't matter.

With the performer, they take in account body language and articulation, a lot of things that are really synonymous to like how theaters are judged on.

"The summer of 1918, "I read The Jungle and The Research Magnificent.

"That fall, my father died and my aunt "took me to Chicago to live.

"The first thing I did was to take "a streetcar to the stockyards.

"In the winter afternoon, gritty and fetid, "I walked through the filthy snow, "through the squalid streets, "looking shyly into the people's faces, "those who were home in the daytime.

"Debauched and exhausted faces, "starved and looted brains, "faces like the faces in the senile "and insane wards of charity hospitals.

"Predatory faces of little children."

I like to think that stage fright doesn't affect me but until today, I've learned that stage fright is a very real thing in my life.

I'm used to performing and being in front of a crowd but this is a whole new ball field.

There are things such as artifulation I had a problem with because I'm just so used to talking and not even worrying about how I sound and things like complexity, what I originally was like, "Well, I just want to get them memorized "so I can get it done and over with," then I realized there's no weight to those words and when it's easy, then the judges can pick up on that.

- [Voiceover] Announcing our State Finals, J'Kobe Wallace, of Minot High School.

- One thing that I know a lot of students, especially teenagers lack is stage presence and being able to go in front of a crowd and represent themselves.

I am lucky enough to be able to talk in front of anyone.

That's kind of a really big part of Poetry Out Loud is being able to just talk, being able to perform, and being able to speak in front of people who you may have met seconds before walking on stage and looking into the eyes of judges that you've never seen before, you've probably heard of and intimidate you.

So I definitely suggest Poetry Out Loud just for that aspect.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud "that floats on high o'er vales and hills, "when all at once I saw a crowd, "a host, of golden daffodils.

"Beside the lake, beneath the trees, "fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

"Continuous as the stars that shine "and twinkle on the Milky Way, "they stretched in never-ending line "along the margin of a bay, ten thousand" I love performing, whether it's on stage as an actor or singing or even poetry.

Just being able to recite in front of people you just met and showing your potential in poetry.

When I walk out of here, I'm going to be a lot more accepting and respondent to words and criticism and things like that.

There's poetry in everything and if it means I sing it or play it or reenact it, poetry will always be a piece of me.

How I Discovered Poetry, I like that one because it was raw.

In order to divulge into this poem and truly understand it, I had to research who the author was and her name is Marilyn Nelson.

This is how she was introduced, not in a bright and shiny way, like in Poetry Out Loud, but in a kind of awful way and to ridicule and racism.

I really had to analyze what I was saying and what person I had to be in order to fully get the poem How I Discovered Poetry, by Marilyn Nelson.

"It was like soul-kissing, "the way the words filled my mouth "as Mrs. Purdy read from her desk.

"All the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15, "but Mrs. Purdy and I wandered lonely as cloud borne "by a breeze off Mount Parnassus.

"She must have seen the darkest eyes in the room brim.

"The next day, she gave me a poem she'd chosen "especially for me to read to the "all except for me white class.

"She smiled when she told me to read it, "smiled harder, said oh yes I could.

"She smiled harder and harder until I stood "and opened my mouth to banjo playing darkies, "pickaninnies, disses and dats.

"When I finished, my classmates stared at the floor.

"We walked silent to the buses, "awed by the power of words."

- [Voiceover] Prairie Mosaic is funded by The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, the North Dakota Council on The Arts, and by the members of Prairie Public.