Paige Savarese, senior, isn’t just a varsity tennis player and this year’s yearbook Editor-in-Cheif, she’s also the founder of the new poetry club. She goes to poetry slams two to three times a week and is starting a poetry club. Some of her poetry can be found on her YouTube channel.

Q: How did you get into writing poetry?
A: “I watched a bunch of Button Poetry videos on the Internet. I first got into poetry because I watched Button Poetry videos and then I realized that I kinda liked the medium of standing up in front of people and reading poetry, but I don’t really like slam poetry that much anymore. I liked it when I initially saw it. Now I like spoken words. It’s a little bit different. I think slam poetry is just a little bit too angry, and I’m not angry person. But that’s how I was introduced to it, watching Button Poetry videos.There was this one poem. It was called ‘Unsolicited advice to adolescent girls‘. That was the first one I saw and I was like ‘whoa, this lady is hard-core.”

Q: How would you describe your personality?
A: “I’m like a smorgasbord. I think I’m a friendly person, and really curious too. I like to think I’m intelligent. A lot of people tell me I’m well spoken, so that’s cool, but I wouldn’t want that to be something I say about myself. I’m a people person. I like talking to people. I’m not afraid of people; I like meeting new people.”

Q: What do you love about poetry?
A: “I really like writing it and I like performing it. I like reading poetry to. I mean, I could tell you what I don’t like about poetry.”

Q: What don’t you like about poetry?
A: “The thing with spoken word is that a lot of it becomes the same format after a while because everybody sounds the same and everybody uses the same smoky voices when things get intense. I don’t really like how a lot of spoken word or slam poetry is a competition of tragedy where people start complaining. It becomes more storytelling than any sort of message. It’s all right. I mean, I go to poetry slams like two or three times a week. Kids get up on stage and they’re just screaming or crying. I don’t know is that’s the best place to be dealing with those kind of problems. I really like how poetry gives people the opportunity to say things they normally wouldn’t say to people involved in their everyday lives. I like that they can up in front of a room full of strangers and just bare all. I think it’s kind of cool and kind of weird.”

Q: How do you write?
A: “Most of the stuff I write has some sort of message is a lot more positive. It’s not like I’m writing about puppies and rainbows and pots of gold. There’s a clear intent to what I’m writing.”