April 27 was National Poetry Day and to celebrate Mcdowell High held a contest. In the competition, Students in Mr. Hill’s class decorated the doors of teachers’ classrooms with a chosen poet to model it after.

Doors were decorated with many talented poets. We asked Mr. Hill what made him want to do the poetry doors, he said, “I taught in California for many years, we held this competition at my former school. The students really liked it so I wanted to bring it to McDowell High. I love to see students learn about poetry, and to see the halls covered in poetry.”

Ms. Jozefiak’s Hall displayed women poets. She stated that “We were going to choose a student poet from Mcdowell, when Mr. Ferguson suggested a female student, it started the idea of a women’s poetry hall.”. When asked why it’s important to include women writers or poets, she said “Women are often misrepresented in poetry, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to give them representation.”

The contest winners have been announced. In first place are Julia Dellinger and Charley Hight for “Sylvia Plath”. Second place is Larissa Childers, Addy Davis, Avery Cline, and Hunter Brown for  “Empowering Black Women”. Third place went to Emily Bustos, Kaykleigh Freeman, and Rhiannon Riley for “Art is Beauty”. For the best theme, the winners were Jamaya Sanders, Jatden Ledbetter, Kensly Stewart, and Jennifer Bustos for the theme “Bright Night: Children’s Classic Bedtime Poems”.