COUNCIL BLUFFS — Gabby Humlicek didn't make the easiest of selections for Tuesday's national Poetry Out Loud competition at the Iowa School for the Deaf.
One of her poems, "Jabberwocky," is filled with nonsense words made up by the author, so "it was a really challenging poem to turn into American Sign Language," Humlicek said.
Humlicek took first place in the local competition Tuesday at the Lied Multipurpose Complex on the Iowa School for the Deaf campus.
Mentor Katie Romney said Humlicek tried to look beyond the words to find the meaning and the feeling of the poem. Humlicek said it also helped that "I'm a gregarious signer, and I practiced."
The student participants chose from a list of poems provided by the national Poetry Out Loud program, and spent months working individually and with American Sign Language mentors on their performances. Scores were based on physical voice and articulation, the poem's level of difficulty, dramatic appropriateness and evidence of the student's understanding of the poem and the overall performance.
This was the second year Iowa School for the Deaf students competed, but Humlicek was a first-time performer.
Not so Auna Ferguson, who came in first in the 2010 contest and took second-place honors this year.
"It was most definitely easier to perform this year. I gained from last year's experience. I was not real nervous," Ferguson said, then conceded she was "a little nervous."
Other performers were Cassandra Contreras of North Platte, Neb., John Isaacson of Clive, Iowa, Johanna Scherling of Council Bluffs, DeMarcus Thomas of Malvern, Iowa, and Kim Wolford of Omaha.
Humlicek and Ferguson, both juniors, will next go to the state competition in Des Moines on March 3, competing with hearing students who won contests at 20 participating Iowa high schools. State winners receive $200 and a trip to compete in Washington, D.C., for the national title.
Poetry Out Loud is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and state arts agencies. The program's goal is to encourage the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance, while helping students build public speaking skills and self-confidence.
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