A Passionate Poet
Growing up on Shel Silverstein books, 19-year-old Claire Pearson, is a writer, performer, competitor and lover of poetry.
“I really wanted to be able to rhyme effortlessly and wear those black floppy hats,” she says.
For five years, Pearson has taken on the art of slam poetry.
“There is a lot to be said about the feeling of finally getting something off your chest. It feels like holding onto a heavy, heavy rock, then leaving it onstage. So light,” she says.
According to Pearson, during her freshman year of high school, a man by the name of Christopher Lane occasionally taught creative writing and slam poetry workshops in her humanities class.
“He taught me that anyone can be a poet and that everybody has stories that they need to share,” Pearson says.
With a yearning for more, Pearson joined Lane’s youth poetry slam team made up of teens ages 13 to 18. As a struggling 14-year-old, Pearson says, “That youth team saved my life more times than I can count.”
Currently, Pearson slams at Firecreek Coffee Company of Flagstaff, Ariz. on Wednesday nights as well as Pumphouse Poetry in Sedona. Although she says she gets nervous every time, the “mad adrenaline rush after performing takes the cake.”
Friend of Pearson and fellow slammer Christopher Fox Graham says, “Through slamming against college students and adults twice and three times her age, she has made her work edgier and more accessible to general audiences while still maintaining her metaphoric imagery.”
Pearson has had opportunities in coaching and teaching workshops for youth as well as organizing teen poetry slams in the Flagstaff community. Last year, she was a member of the Flagstaff National Poetry Team that competed in California.
Graham says Pearson has transformed from a confident yet timid poet to a competitor against professional touring slammers and poets. “Pearson is sort of a poetic oracle, showing the path other poets can walk should they pursue our art form with the same sort of tenacity she does,” he says.
Pearson’s advice to those new to slam poetry is, “It’s okay to be nervous; the point is not the points, the point is the poetry. Just get up there and give it your all, everyone wants to see you shine. You are perfect.”
