As someone who doesn't have much experience with poetry or spoken word, Ohio Northern's Student Planning Committee, or SPC, hosted a great event last Tuesday night. The new event was The Bear Cave's opening début: walls smelling fresh of paint and the lights not all quite working just yet. Nonetheless, people came, and more importantly, people stayed. The opening poet, ONU's own Rachel Cruea, blew everyone away with her descriptive and thought provoking pieces. My first thought of Katie Wirsing's introduction seemed more forced than what she implied, but it was different then any other event that I have attended. After Katie spoke, it almost felt like post-concert depression. I luckily pulled her away long enough for an interview after the show! Here is Katie and I's Q&A.
What started your passion for poetry?
In high school, like I said high school was really hard, and I think I really needed to find another community outside of high school to not kill myself. I found a poetry community in Denver the first night that I went there and I was like, “These are my people!” From then on I was like, "This is what I am doing." and it absolutely kept me alive through that miserable time.
When did you start writing seriously?
It's been my full-time job for almost six years, so just a little before that, I think. I didn't really ever think that it could be like a "job-job", like a sustainable job, and then when it came to me, it was like, “Absolutely, that's what I'm going to do.” So, that's when I really got serious about the writing process.
Can you describe your writing process?
Yeah, mostly I walk around my house and I talk to myself a lot so it looks like this: *she then proceeds to walk in a circle mimicking herself mumbling* Or in the car. I do a lot of talking to myself in the car, too.
What did you do before you wrote your poems?
Right, first there was a preschool teacher, then it was a dance teacher, then I was a makeup artist in New York City, and then I was a hair stylist in Miami.
How often do you change your set?
It's a little different every night. There's just kind of always like a pool of poems and stories that I work from that I just pull out that night from what happens, but you do so many shows, so inevitably you're reading the same things a lot of the time. I try not to get too "in a rut" too, [or] I won't be in it, I won't be feelin' it.
What's your favorite topic to write about?
My family. I mean, I don't even know that I know that it's my favorite. I just know that every time I try to write a poem about anything else, eventually I'm like, “Well there you are family, you made your way into this one too!”
Most memorable campus?
Well, most memorable campus, one time they were giving away professional football tickets at the show so that led to like a lot of “bro-dudes,” who maybe wouldn't normally come to a poetry show, [they] came because they wanted football tickets. So I read to a very crowded room of like, “dudes” and that was a little scary, but this was amazing. It's exactly what I love. A sweet little room of folks that are really stoked to listen to poetry, and really want to give me feedback.Thank you so much Katie for allowing us to see you thoughts in such a personal setting. Please come back to ONU soon!
