Poetry Out Loud, the national recitation competition supported regionally by the Count Basie Center Academy since 2015, has made a series of online resources available to celebrate words and verses.

Released in early April to kick off National Poetry Month, the resources recognize the world’s pivot to distance learning. For example, 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month in the Virtual Classroom provides teachers with ideas to incorporate poetry into their daily lesson plans.

Outside the classroom, Poetry Out Loud also offers “30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month at Home or Online,” a collection of suggestions and links to a variety of virtual poetry resources. (Our favorites? Poets.org’s tips on “Creating A Poetry Playlist” and the idea of incorporating poetry into our new world of virtual meetings.)

“One cannot deny the power of the arts to heal,” says Yvonne Lamb-Scudiery, Vice President / Education, Count Basie Center for the Arts. “We see on a daily basis the innate ability of the arts to bring joy, and impact lives in a profoundly  positive way. Spoken word is as powerful as music, dance and theatre to elicit change and joy.”

In the spirit of the times, regional Poetry Out Loud submissions are being featured on Twitter at www.twitter.com/njpoetryoutloud.

The Basie Center’s support of Poetry Out Loud aligns with its mission to inspire, education and entertain. And both organizations, Scudiery says, are working hard to create valuable online resources in this era of social distancing.

“In additional to the virtual arts engagement resources the Basie Center has produced, these tools from Poetry Out Loud engage parents, teachers and students in the literary arts,” Scudiery added. “We know parents and teachers need all the tools and resources possible to support distance learning, and we want to share all resources available to create a virtual support system for our schools