Writer’s Day celebrates passion, poetry
Among Cary-Grove’s treasure trove of artists, there is a new community forming: poets. Spoken word poetry has become a popular modern form of expression and art, so C-G started up the Poetry Club this year and hosted the first annual C-G Writer’s Day.
The event was held in the auditorium and was open to all English classes. Students in Creative Writing or who attend Poetry Club were encouraged to spend the whole day at the event.
This Writer’s Day was a fantastic experience for aspiring writers to learn more about the art and craft of creative writing and poetry.
The first presenter was Stacey Kade, a YA fiction novelist. She started off the presentations strong by talking about how to keep a routine and set goals when trying to write a novel.
And of course, she touched on the topic of failure. This successful novelist admitted that she was rejected about 50 times before she ever got her first publishing deal.
The next speaker was poet Chastity Gunn. Her strategy to writing creatively was to find different and interesting perspectives on the topic that she was trying to cover. She also talked about the importance of power behind words.
“You can have something great to say and not say it well, and no one will listen,” Gunn said.
Next up was the slam poet Corey Dillard. He touched a lot on writing about things that you love, things you are passionate about — and this isn’t just things that make you uncontrollably mad. One poem Dillard shared was as simple as not understanding why Chicagoans are so against putting ketchup on hotdogs.
Aside from the jokes, his advice was to never let other people tell you what to do, how to feel, or what to write. He said we should all be forgiving of ourselves, and when we change, it shouldn’t be to please anyone but ourselves.
“We should all be really big fans of ourselves,” Dillard joked, saying he was the president, vice president, and secretary of his own fan club.
Adam Gottlieb, Dillard’s partner in crime, also talked about writing for yourself.
“Do it for you,” Gottlieb said, emphasising that we needed to find what we love and write on what we are passionate about, not just what is relevant to everyone else.
C-G Writer’s Day ended with a bang of student performances. Underclassmen and upperclassmen alike got up on stage and shared their original pieces.
The complexity of each poem was incredible, sending the crowd into wild applause after each one. And, of course, the bravery that it took for those people to stand on stage was enormous.
These students proved that spoken-word poetry is a great way to write and speak with passion and creativity.
To see the student and professional performances, click here.
