My Miss America Mishap

 By Katie Ann Powell

[On Instagram, I asked what questions people would ask a Miss America candidate. Several wonderful questions were submitted. Katie Ann Powell, Miss District of Columbia 2024, was kind enough to take a crack at answering a couple of them for us, and added a story of her own as well. This is her first guest blog for us. -S36F]

Hey Section 36! It’s Katie Ann, Miss District of Columbia. It’s been nine months, and I still can’t believe that I get to say that I am Miss DC. Even more than that, I can’t believe I did it! I went to Miss America! It has been a dream to play my harp on the Miss America Stage! But I have to tell you a behind the scenes story with my harp:

First off, my harp is taller than I am, and I am tall, so that’s saying a lot. It’s 80 pounds and not the most easy to transport. But when you’re a professional harpist, you just do it anyways. So cheers to my mom who flew into the district to help me drive my harp more than 12 hours down to Orlando. We had quite the wonderful road trip!

The harp got there in one piece and I was so excited to play for talent night!

Before I tell you the rest of the story, I need you to imagine a piano. You know how pianos have black and white keys? Well the black keys make the notes sharp and flat. Harps do that too, but instead of having a separate note, we move our feet and it changes the sound of the string we are playing. So next time you watch a harpist, watch their feet. They will probably be playing with their feet just as much as they are playing with their hands.

Now knowing that pedal positions make whole different notes, you can imagine it is pretty important the position the pedals start in when you begin a harp piece. Well the wonderful stage crew brought out my harp and placed my pedals. I walked onstage, sat down, and played the first couple of notes…… Oh No…. Stage Crew had placed all of my pedals wrong, so the first notes of my piece were all wrong.

This is Miss America, you can’t just start over. So I had to think fast. I started to do a little trill, then my right foot started flying moving all of my pedals back into the right position. If you watch the live stream video, within the first 5 seconds watch my right foot, it is flying to correct the wrong pedals.

Thankfully, I corrected everything very very quick then started playing the rest of the piece.

And guess what, I NAILED THAT PIECE. I nailed the little improvising I had to do to start the piece. I nailed every note after that. I made music come from my soul and fly out through my fingers. I may not have won a talent award, but I walked away knowing for myself that I really am a professional harpist – I can correct any stressful circumstance, wrong key, wrong pedals without anyone know AND still nail the piece. That’s what being professional is. It’s not about getting everything right all the time, it’s about what you do when you get it wrong.

 

What did I do backstage?

I had a very fun project I was working on backstage when we were waiting. I like to knit and I found this amazing hot pink yarn. When I saw the yarn in the storm I knew immediately I needed to knit something for my friend Bridget, Miss Maryland. So backstage I just worked on knitting her hat.

What kept you grounded during the week?

To be honest, my amazing roommate Monica, Miss Connecticut made me grounded the whole week. I ADORE Monica! We were both locked in and ready to do our best, and we kept it real, knowing what was important and what was not. We laughed a lot together. During the whole week we just sent funny snap chats together to my sister with the craziest filters we could find. I am walking away with the most amazing friend for life. 

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Katie Ann Powell is the current Miss District of Columbia. You can find her on her title's Instagram and/or her personal website. 

This is her first blog for Section 36 Forevers.