Good Hope Country Day Student Wins USVI Poetry Out Loud Competition, Heads to National Finals in D.C.
Maya Prasad, a 16-year-old junior at Good Hope Country Day School, has been named the 2025 U.S. Virgin Islands Poetry Out Loud territory champion. Among more than 157,000 students who participated nationwide this year, Prasad now advances to the Poetry Out Loud National Semifinals in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, May 6.
2025-04-24 20:38:22 - VI News Staff
“I was really surprised and excited when they called my name,” said Prasad. “Everyone performed so well. I really wanted it — I was walking around and rehearsing my poems over and over.”
Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation competition that combines the power of performance and the beauty of classic and contemporary poetry. Students select three poems from a curated list of more than 1,000, with the requirement that one must be pre-20th century, and one must be 25 lines or fewer.
For her final performance, Prasad selected “Gitanjali 35” by Rabindranath Tagore, the renowned Indian poet and Nobel Prize winner in Literature. The poem is part of his celebrated collection “Gitanjali.”
“One of the poems I selected is very hopeful,” Prasad explained. “It’s like a balance of performing and acting, but also being very genuine. You have to believe what you’re saying, like you’re talking to someone, and you want them to really understand you.”
Her acting background helped her bring each piece to life with a unique voice and character. “My first poem, as my mom likes to say, is like we’re going to church — very powerful and hopeful, but fun. The second is about childhood, so it’s light and full of nature. The third is about social injustice and rights – I’m invoking a powerful persona with that one.”
Prasad credits much of her preparation and performance skills to her family. “Everyone in my family acts, so they all contributed in some way. But my main official coach is my sister Clara, who’s an actress and studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.”
“With my coach, we discussed what kind of vibe we wanted to give off with each poem,” she said. “It’s like telling three different stories.”