High school students from around North Dakota perform poems by poets from Shakespeare to the current Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo. Each episode has recitations from the statewide contest. The students studied the poems to understand the meaning and worked on creating the best performance, and the results are intense and often moving.

ND Poetry Out Loud is organized by the North Dakota Council on the Arts with support from the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.