2020 Fresh Voices Poetry Competition

Thank you to all the high school students who participated in Hill-Stead Museum’s Fresh Voices Poetry competition and the teachers and parents who supported them. Poetry has the power to heal and bring comfort, particularly during these trying times.

United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo attests to this statement: “Poetry tends to hang out at points of transformation…when a death happens in the family, or some other grief event, or marriage, or falling in love, or falling out of love, birth—people always turn to poetry.”

Hill-Stead is thrilled to announce the 2020 Fresh Voices Poetry Competition Finalists, congratulations to:

• Haneen Alkabasi, Avon High School
• Alicia Chiu, William H. Hall High School
• Jake Colangelo, Joel Barlow High School
• Holden Escabi, Wethersfield High School
• Ashton Hamre, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts
• Hannah Kim, Glastonbury High School
• Rose Kitz, William H. Hall High School
• Alexandra Melo, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts
• Maggie Munday Odom, The Grove School
• Olatunji Osho-Williams, Westminster School
• Connie Pan, Lyme-Old Lyme High School
• Sophia Ramirez, Wilton High School
• Melanie Trotochaud, Marine Science Magnet High School
• Cindy Troung, Educational Center for the Arts
• Charlotte Watts, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts
• Lauren Young, Trinity Catholic High School

Hill-Stead Museum would like to thank this year’s Fresh Voices judges, David Caldwell, David K. Leff, and Amy Nawrocki.  The judges are currently reviewing the poems by the finalists. Fresh Voices readers, Kate Doemland of Miss Porter’s School, and Jamie Perry of Avon Old Farms School thoughtfully recommended the sixteen finalists from nearly 50 poetry submissions.