The Blue & White

by Allison Kelly

For this year’s 2022 Poetry Out Loud competition, Irianny Solorin, a senior at Methuen High School, placed 3rd in the Massachusetts state competition. 

Irianny first chose a poem called Oranges by Roisin Kelly to recite in her class competition. “As someone with an interest in theater and a love of acting, I went in looking for a poem that had a story I felt I could convey to my audience,” Solorin said. “I would also choose poems on the longer side because I personally feel like nailing a longer poem shows a deeper understanding of the author’s message.” 

Irianny was the champion in Mrs. Symonds’ 2nd block English class. She eventually became MHS champion, and moved onto the state finals, which was broadcasted through Zoom on March 13. 

To memorize her poems Irianny breaks them down into stanzas. She starts memorizing by line and continues to add on lines until the whole stanza, and eventually the whole poem, is memorized. 

To prepare herself for states, she focused on knowing it was going to be virtual, just as it was last year. That means she got to record herself on her own time and was able to send in the best take to the judge. 

Irisnny is involved in many extracurricular activities at Methuen High. She is part of theater, choir, National Honors Society, SADD, and she plays for the field hockey team. Irianny is attending Bridgewater State University and she is majoring in Health Science. She plans to become a physician’s assistant. 

When asked if she could give any motivation to someone who was about to head on stage to recite their poem, Irianny said, “Though it can be nerve wracking to perform in front of your peers, once you start and get into it, it gets much easier. Trust in yourself and the work you put into learning your poem. Most people get caught up on trying not to mess up but that’s only one portion of the scoring.”