Author: Wade Allen

Get Ready to Celebrate!

I hope you’re all planning to attend our VERY BIG PARTY on April 13th. Please bring your friends and family to enjoy the festivities, and don’t forget to invite your teacher!

The program will feature speakers from ACC, and will include KLRU-produced videos of students reading their poems. Our Master of Ceremonies for the evening is Brad Richard – an award-winning poet and educator who is coming all the way from New Orleans just for this event.

We will have a great buffet of tapas-style food designed by our chef and served by students in ACC’s Hospitality Program. There will be a red-carpet with paparazzi including students from ACC’s Professional Photography Department, and a video crew will be there to document and live-stream the program.

All Vision+Voice honorees will get a goody bag with special treats — including the 2018 Vision+Voice Anthology and a certificate of achievement. Of course, we will have lots of this year’s poetry posters to give away.

See you soon!
– Polly

Doors open at 7pm, the program starts at 7:30pm.
ACC Eastview Campus, 3401 Webberville Road, Room 8500

Park in any student or faculty spot in Lot G or Lot E.

V+V POETS: KLRU Wants to Tape YOUR Poem!

You are a superstar – come tape your poem!

We are very fortunate that KLRU (our local PBS station) has been a supporter of Vision+Voice since we started in 2013. They generously offer up their talent, time, and facilities to tape the winning and honorable mention poets reading their poems. The videos will be premiered at the Vision+Voice Award Reception on April 13th, and are then posted online at KLRU and here on the Vision+Voice website. This year, our judges have selected 50 winning and honorable mention poems, and we want to tape ALL of them.


The taping is scheduled for March 26 & 27, from 11am–1pm & 2pm–6pm each day. 
Each poem takes between 5 -15 minutes to tape, and I will do my best to arrange the schedule to meet your request.

Poets: you do not need to memorize your poems! I will have the poems printed for you.

This is a great way to showcase the excellent work of this year’s poets, and I hope you will all take advantage of this generous offer from KLRU.
Here are the 2017 videos so you can see how cool this is!

 

The time-slots are filling up quickly, please contact me to schedule your taping: pmonear@austincc.edu.

 

See you soon!

Polly Monear, Vision+Voice Team
Austin Community College

 

2017-18 Winners

WOW – So many great poems this year!

Poets, you have made selecting this year’s winners both difficult and enjoyable. Thank you for participating and congratulations on your achievement.

Here are the winners and honorable mention poems for the 2018 Vision+Voice Poetry Contest:

KINDERGARTEN

Winner                          Robot by Rowan F

Honorable Mention          Whale by Alchemy D

Honorable Mention          Feelings by Malik S

 

FIRST GRADE

Winner                          Guess It! by Valerie W

Honorable Mention          Albert Pujols by Zinn T

Honorable Mention          The Unicorn’s Journey to France by Maple W

Honorable Mention         El Atardecer  by Ines G

 

SECOND GRADE

Winner                          Deep Down by Ellidy J

Honorable Mention          Skip, Dance by Sven G

Honorable Mention          Best Valentine by Riley M

Honorable Mention          Books by Grace B

 

THIRD GRADE

Winner                          Chlorine by Orla T

Honorable Mention          Wind by Olivia R

Honorable Mention          In a Chihuahua’s Eyes by Asa W

Honorable Mention          Where I Come From by Ivy G

Honorable Mention          Books by Clarey W

 

FOURTH GRADE

Winner                          The Howl by Yajaira D

Honorable Mention          The Garden by Lark T

Honorable Mention          Girl by Julianna P

Honorable Mention          Chances by Lyla B

 

FIFTH GRADE

Winner                          Rain Fun by Layla W

Honorable Mention          My Magic Box by Ahmory H

Honorable Mention          Water by Olive A

Honorable Mention        César by Reina S

Honorable Mention          Brave Voices by Martha N

 

SIXTH GRADE

Winner                          Poem by Kole M

Honorable Mention          Driving in the Dark by Katherine K

Honorable Mention          I Dropped My Pencil by Grace S

Honorable Mention          Things to Remember by Nicole P

 

SEVENTH GRADE

Winner                          The Red Flowers by Elizabeth R

Honorable Mention          Compose a Symphony by Alexander N

Honorable Mention          Today’s Fight by Claire M

 

EIGHTH GRADE

Winner                          Requiem for a Friendship by Sarah A

Honorable Mention          Thoughts by Abigail L

Honorable Mention          Rhyming by Davis K

Honorable Mention          Life in Poverty by Javier M

Honorable Mention          Like Elephants by Meagan L

 

NINTH GRADE

Winner                          Wings by Teresa R

Honorable Mention          Water by Nia O

 

TENTH GRADE

Winner                          Ocean Love by Sara V

Honorable Mention          My Scrawny Nightmare by Talia H

Honorable Mention          angels in new england by Inayah M

 

ELEVENTH GRADE

Winner                          Condemned by Payton B

Honorable Mention          My Family Comes From the Sea by Logan D

Honorable Mention          Suburbia by Amy S

Honorable Mention          If childhood had a flavor, by Amy S

 

TWELFTH GRADE

Winner                          This is What the Moon Thinks About by Saylor H

Honorable Mention          Pain by Kevin B

Honorable Mention          Autobahn by Justine L

Honorable Mention          Mauve Azaleas by Saylor H

Honorable Mention          Into the Frill by Nate S

 

Congratulations to everyone!
We look forward to seeing you all at the Award Reception on April 13th (details coming soon).

  • The V+V Team

 

Advice for Poets

Hello Poets!
We hope you’re busy putting the finishing touches on your poetic masterpieces so you can submit your poems by the February 19 deadline!

Wondering what the judges will be looking for when they read your poem? Here are a few hints:

Imagery – images need not be only visual; any of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) make a poem vital and interesting.

Originality – Use your own voice in your own way.

Use of Language and Form – How does the work look on the page? How does it sound when you read it aloud? Don’t sacrifice a great phrase or image just to make a rhyme.

 

KLRU Videos of 2017 Vision+Voice Winners

Fostering Originality in Poetry

Young Poets Network

2017 Award Reception Video

Want to re-live the Vision+Voice Award Reception? Here’s your chance!
This is the live-stream video that ACC broadcast during the event on April 28. Please feel free to download and share this video.

Sorry, you’ll have to provide your own snacks to enjoy while viewing this. We couldn’t figure out a way to include a link to the great food that was at the event.

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Vision+Voice Award Reception Master of Ceremonies

We are thrilled to announce that our Master of Ceremonies for this year’s Award Reception is Brad Richard, chair of the creative writing program at Lusher Charter School in New Orleans.

“As a poet, a teacher, and an advocate for young writers, I’m delighted to be part of this celebration of these poets,” says Richard. “There are few things I love more than seeing young people get recognition for extraordinary creative work, so I can’t wait to join in the applause!”

2015 Louisiana Artist of the Year, and poetry winner in the 2002 Poets & Writers Writers Exchange competition, Brad is the author of three collections of poems, Habitations, Motion Studies (winner of the 2010 Washington Prize) and Butcher’s Sugar, and two chapbooks, The Men in the Dark and Curtain Optional. His poems and reviews have appeared in Gettysburg Review, Okey-Panky, Unlikely Stories, Guernica, American Letters & Commentary, and other journals. Mr. Richard is co-director of the southeast Louisiana affiliate of the Scholastic Writing Awards and of The New Orleans New Writers Literary Festival. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Surdna Foundation, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Vision+Voice Award Reception will be held on Friday, April 28th from 6:30-8:30pm at Austin Community College’s Eastview Campus (3401 Webberville Road).
Please join us!

KLRU Taping

Hello, Vision+Voice Poets, Parents, and Teachers!

Congratulations to all the poets for having your work selected for recognition in the 2017 Vision+Voice Poetry Contest! This year, over 400 poems were submitted to the contest from students all over Austin, so you should be proud of this accomplishment. I am so excited to see all of these amazing poems published in the 2017 Vision+Voice Anthology, and to see the winning poems transformed into posters.

One of the special things we do for Vision+Voice poets is to arrange a taping of each poet reading their poem at the historic KLRU Studio 6 – a.k.a. the birthplace of Austin City Limits. This year, we are inviting ALL winning and honorable mention poets to come in and tape their poems.
Here’s a link to previous tapings so you can see how cool this is.

The taping is scheduled for Monday, March 27.
PLEASE contact me to schedule a time to come in to do the taping.  (The taping is really easy and takes no more than 15 minutes)
Thanks – I look forward to meeting you!
Polly Monear, Vision+Voice Coordinator
512-223-3352 / pmonear@austincc.edu