Teen born in refugee camp wins Oregon poetry contest

(MARCH 10, 2019) Poetry is a special kind of writing. Each piece of poetry is called a poem. Poetry uses words with strong, expressive feelings. Often a poem has short lines. It can use rhythm, like music. Sometimes it has words that rhyme, which means words have the same vowel sound. For example: "fat" and "cat" rhyme because they have the same vowel sound, but "fat" and "dog" do not rhyme because they do not have the same vowel sound.

Poetry Out Loud is a national contest for high school students. Students read poems aloud at contests in schools around the U.S., including in Oregon. Winners from schools move on to regional contests. Winners from regional contests compete in a state competition.

Belise Nishimwe, a high school student at St. Mary's Academy in Portland, is the 2019 winner from Oregon. She will compete in the national competition in Washington, D.C., at the end of April.

Belise is in 10th grade. She spent the first five years of her life in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Then her family moved to the U.S. She wants to use her voice to help immigrants and refugees around the world.

"This is everyone’s victory,” said Belise. “I want to represent refugees and immigrants in a good light. I wanted to do Poetry Out Loud because when I was younger I wanted that representation that I rarely ever saw. I wanted to see other immigrants like me participate in a variety of activities and succeed so that I could know that I could achieve that too.”