Listen to Ahkei’s interview on 102.1 FM – The Tide with host Eric Worden:
VIRGINIA BEACH – Reciting poetry better than any other high schooler in the country is a work of art that requires work like this:
Ahkei Togun, 17, locked his bedroom door each night for a week and practiced for five or six hours at a time — pacing and reciting, pacing and reciting — until about midnight.
“Letting it flow, letting it flow,” he said.
The senior from Tallwood High School did this until he knew the words so intimately “that you can embody them,” he said.
“You can trust that they’re there and you can translate them the way that you want them.”
That is partly how Togun won the national Poetry Out Loud contest last week in Washington, D.C., and the competition’s $20,000 grand prize.
Some things, he didn’t practice. Togun, who is also an actor, didn’t script his physical movements. He wants his performance to look natural, so he lets his hand gestures and other actions happen in the moment, as seen here in his recitation of “I’m a Fool to Love You” by Cornelius Eady, his semi-final showing:
The contestants had a list of poems from which to choose to perform for the competition, which is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
Togun, who has participated in the contest since his freshman year, said he typically has three weeks to a month to practice from the time he chooses his poems to when he performs them. In the final round, he beat students from Georgia and Hawaii with his recitation of “Bereavement” by William Lisle Bowles.
Togun described himself as being focused for that last poem in a way he had never been before. Before going on stage he closed his eyes and listened to a jazz-laced Kendrick Lamar track on repeat. He was no longer thinking of advancing, or of winning, or of the prize money.
When he finished, it was “a feeling of amazement,” he said.
“I walked off the stage feeling wonderful,” he said.
Togun wants to share the feeling. He said that’s why he acts and performs — to move people and to inspire them to pursue whatever it is they love to do. He will attend college in New York at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
As for the $20,000 prize money, Togun said he plans to put “just a small snippet” toward a car and much of the rest into savings. He would also like to treat family and friends to dinner.
“I’ve never really been a big spender,” he said. “I like saving.”
Togun will next perform locally on May 20 at Tallwood’s Global Gala. He will give a 10-minute spoken-word performance of his own material.
