Forty-three poems went head-to-head in this March Madness-style poetry contest on the Historic Downtown Campus. 

Every eighth-grader selected a poem to read before their English class, an activity that flexed students' skills as collaborative and confident communicators. Students voted on their favorite poems, narrowing it down to the Sweet 16, then the Final Four, until only two poems remained: "New Lines for Fortune Cookies" by James Masao Mitsui (read by Elias Chen '28) and "If—" by Rudyard Kipling (read by Marlon Maignan '28). 

The Class of 2028 voted "New Lines for Fortune Cookies" as the winning poem of this this year's Poetry Madness!