Local Student Wins Illinois Poetry Competition, Competes At Nationals

SKOKIE, IL — After winning her second state consecutive championship in the Poetry Out Loud national recitation competition this spring, Niles West High School junior Yohanna Endashaw on Wednesday showcased her skills against top talent from 54 other states and territories.

More than 160,000 students took part in the Poetry Out Loud competition, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, or NEA, the Poetry Foundation and local art agencies, now in its 19th year.

“While Poetry Out Loud is a competition, it is also an opportunity for these students to forge new friendships through shared passion for poetry and performance while building communication and interpersonal skills that will serve them well in the future," said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson.

Niles West High School English teacher Sarah Graham praised the local champion at last month's Niles Township High School District 219 board meeting, where Endashaw recited the poem she would later read in the semifinals.

"We're so proud of Yohanna," Graham said.

"She did so well last year and she was determined to get back," she said. "There's $50,000 in scholarships overall, and the first-place winner is $20,000. So it's high stakes, but it's also incredibly enjoyable and an honor to work with Yohanna."

Endashaw, a Morton Grove resident, is the oldest of three children of parents who emigrated from Ethiopia.

In addition to her poetic prowess, she performs in the Niles West orchestra, plays basketball and is the CEO of a nonprofit called Uplifting Health, which collects health care supplies in the Chicago suburbs.

After college, she plans to pursue a career in neuroscience while staying involved with spoken word performers and her nonprofit work to fight health disparities.

"She is interested in health equity and the disparities between America and third-world countries, and between socioeconomic classes," said Auyne Boone, introducing Endashaw at the national semifinals Wednesday at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium.

In the semifinal format, which consists of three rounds, Endashaw and the champions of 17 other states or territories recited a poem of their choice twice before judges selected eight regional finalists.

Those finalists are narrowed to three after they read another poem, and that trio advances to Thursday's national finals.

Endashaw read "You, If No One Else," by Tino Villaneuva and translated by James Hoggard.

Villaneuva, a poet and painter from Texas, writes in both English and Spanish, exploring themes including memory, longing and history, according to Poetry Out Loud, which only allows poems from its official anthology to be used in its competition.

The poem reads, in part:

Tell how you were able to come
to this point, to unbar
History's doors
to see your early years,
your people, the others.
Name the way
rebellion's calm spirit has served you,
and how you came
to unlearn the lessons
of that teacher,
your land's omnipotent defiler.

Endashaw is also a published author herself, having published a collection of poems last fall called "Maturing in Free Verse."

At the state championship, Endashaw emerged as the judges' choice out of 16 finalists representing eight regions of Illinois at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in Springfield.

Of the three poems she read at state finals in March, she said her favorite was "Once the World Was Perfect," by Joy Harjo, a recent U.S. poet laureate.

"Although we currently are in a world where jealousy and greed divide us," Endashaw said of the poem in a statement last month after winning the Illinois championship, "we can unite and reach peace."

Endashaw performed in her first poetry slam in 4th grade, she told the Daily Northwestern, and began focusing a large amount of time on her poetry once the COVID-19 virus disrupted other high school activities.

“I really dove into it during the pandemic as an emotional outlet and a way to process things going through at the time," she told The Daily last year.

Ahead of this week's Poetry Out Loud national finals, Gov. J.B. Pritzker wished the two-time Illinois champion the best of luck.

"Congratulations to Yohanna Endashaw and to all the young people who dedicated themselves to the study of poetry, and put themselves forward to perform," Pritzker said, "no small feat for anyone of any age."

Although Endashaw was not among the eight regional finalists selected from her semifinalist group Wednesday, she will have an opportunity to go for a three-peat in Illinois in her senior year.