Claire Forster

I've seen you perform quite often on campus. What is it about spoken word that entices you?

First of all, I think what is really important about understanding me is that often I don't want to perform. However, at the same time the feedback I receive feeds me. It's a push-and-pull relationship. One minute I don't want to do it, then the next I want to change others' perspectives of who I am. Its duality and simplicity are what entice me. Spoken word is the difference between reciting and performing. To perform a poem you have to put yourself back within it. The mood you were in when you wrote it can change when you perform. One day you can perform a happy poem in an exciting and enthusiastic mood, then on a bad day you do the same poem and it feels resentful. Emotions are so involved and I'm never the same.

When and how did you become involved in spoken word?

I wrote my first poem in 6th grade and the inspiration was my mother's best friend who had died from cancer. It was a free-write exercise in class and my teacher gave me some pretty good feedback. Afterwards, I tried to keep a journal. I knew Molly Raynor's sister, Emma, from back in the day and I heard Molly perform. After hearing her in 8th grade I thought I could do that, move people with words. I slammed for the first time in 10th grade and I was horrible. Then I took Jeff Kass' class in high school for two years and also did the Volume Youth Poetry Project at the teen center here, the Neutral Zone. I made it on the Ann Arbor youth slam team my junior and senior years and I won the youth slam my senior year (2005). The teams competed nationally in Los Angeles and then San Francisco, where I performed at the opera house for about three thousand people in the finals. When I was making college decisions rumor spread to me that I would be in WordWorks if I went to U of M and here I am now doing it BIG!

Do you do any other forms of writing besides poetry?

I am certainly aware of the healing power of keeping a journal. I try to write everyday and I write short stories in my tutorials. It's definitely a different ball game than poetry, but I love writing.

Are you ever nervous when you perform? What are you thinking?

It depends on the poem and audience. I know for certain the audience members will listen and usually know I'll bring something new and intense at the U-Club Poetry Slams. I do get nervous though, but it's more excitement. I'm not worried about scoring a high score; instead I just want to share my art. Last year was a learning experience for me because I was afraid how I would be perceived. So I didn't really slam. I was dealing with more insecurity with myself than with my poetry.

I've noticed that you tend to use metaphors in your writing. Where does that come from?

I don't really know. I try to break down how something works. I also really like natural sciences, which explain how we interact with one another. I would say a big part of becoming a poet is, it sounds really basic but, out of desperation for ideas, training myself to hear the poetry in everything. I take sentences out of context from everyday speech and actions. I understand that everything is everything and it can be explained through everything, by metaphor or comparison. You just have to find it. It's like when you smell something that you remember but you can't grasp it just yet. But when you do it clicks. For me, that click, that intangible thing I'm feeling and putting a name to, is inspiring. It's just taking a different approach, which I learned in Jeff's class. He taught to stop using the "Dull Dozen," a common poetry style or words, like action rhymes (nation, discrimination, complication; Lauryn Hill already did that well) and making something original instead. Being in a class like that has mentally pushed me to write something that I haven't heard before.

Have you taken any poetry classes at Michigan?

I've taken two short story tutorials at the RC and Intro to Poetry. However, even if I didn't take those classes I choose my classes based on interest. They tend to become material I write about. For example, my hurricane poem. I was taking an Oceanography class where I learned how a hurricane worked. Taking something I learned, I broke it down, and used it to parallel and explain something within, that happened to, society.

Are there any artists that inspire you?

Most of my "weird" writing comes from listening to Radiohead. I usually am inspired by music in general. Poets that inspire me to be a poet are Roger Bonair-Agard and Kevin Coval. I've taken workshops with them for about 3 or 4 years now. Being able to see their careers blossom and flourish has inspired me to take it a step further. Then poetically, Saul Williams inspires me. He was the first person who made me question everything—to question why I think the way and what I think and to establish my own beliefs. It was mind-blowing when I saw him the first time.

How would you define a poetry slam?

A poetry slam is a gimmick to get people to come. It's a competition. Its fun but poetry is more than that. To each his own.

Do you go long periods of time without writing? Why is that?

Recently I haven't had much time to write, though I have noticed that I tend to write less during the winter than in the summer. It seems more like seasonal depression, so I should be writing. Sometimes it's hard and distracting to get into an emotion. With school it's hard to give all my time when I have that poetic urge. I have to hold it back, otherwise everything spins into being consumed by figuring something—a poem—out. I would like to write every day because there is no excuse. Poetry is the magnification of how I look at everything, feel, express, and believe. Poetry is literally my prayer: getting into contact with this power.

If you could give advice to up-and-coming poets, what would it be?

First, read a lot of poetry. Go through what the poem is, why it makes you feel this way and how it does that mechanically. Study every word and consider why another word was not used. Study what gives the poem its end result, its impact. Recognize the power then you will be able to write and formulate your own words and feelings to build to your own end result. This will help you to make your own writing more specific and to the point. Then, go back and know what is unnecessary. Know what to cut. Some things may sound cool but they may also be hurting your poem. Just put it into the "good line graveyard" and write it its own poem.