9th Grader, Kim, Wins Poetry Honors Across Counties

by Jeff Garrett

To be recognized honorably in your community is one thing and in your region, is another. For one talented academic teenager, she’ll take that honor.

That’s the case for Daila Kim, a member of the Class of 2026 at Livingston High School, who was crowned a “Poetry Out Loud” winner in the Region 5 Contest at the South Orange Performing Arts Center on Feb 9.

Kim beat out eight fellow competitors from Essex and Union Counties where students presented memorized recitations of three different poems over three rounds of competition.

As area winner, Kim went to the POL state championships representing Livingston HS in March at Count Basie Center for the Arts. Her teachers Dr. Michael Sunga, Public Speaking & English; Mr. Tim Callahan (English I Honors) and Mrs. Jackie Pascale, Community Period, attended the Feb. 9 competition and supported Kim at the state championships.

New Jersey Poetry Out Loud is a project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, in collaboration with Mayo Performing Arts Center, and ArtPride