Community Spotlight: Inspirational Stories 

On November 29th, Ninth-grade students were treated to an assembly with spoken word poet Micheal Peterson, more commonly known as Chief the Poet. After his visit, I had a chance to speak with Peterson about his life, his poetry, and his inspiration. Peterson started out writing poetry in high school to find another way to express himself, and by college, he spoke in his first open mic night. Now he’s the Dean of Students at New Britain High School while coaching their football and basketball teams. A couple of his other accomplishments include his performance at the 2012 London Olympics and writing and performing in his one-man show called ‘I Wish Life Had Training Wheels’. Chief the Poet is not only currently the third consecutive winner of the Connecticut Spoken Work Grand Slam but also finished fifth place in the National Poetry Slam. But so far his biggest accomplishment has been the seminars to small communities such as our freshman class, to keep us as inspired as him.

Where does he get his inspiration from?

Like many artists out there, his main source of inspiration comes from the people around him. Chief the Poet talked about a couple of other poets he knows can write about anything, such as the couch they just sat on or a bird they saw earlier that day. But as he puts emotions into each of his poems it’s easier to write about an event he experienced. This way one could remember how they felt during the time, and then put that on paper. Chief mentioned that ”everyone draws their creativity from somewhere a little different”,  But this is a good start as you can never run out of inspiration when it surrounds you, because a change of scenery could help refresh ideas.

How often does he write and how does he overcome writing challenges?

Even if the Chief doesn’t write a poem, he still makes sure to write something down every day. Chief mentioned that writing is a skill that needs to be practiced and improved, and writing a little every day is the same thing as practicing a sport or instrument. Because he always has a journal and a pencil on him, he goes through journals and journals and even goes back into them to re-read what he’s written. This helps with inspiration and seeing growth through writing challenges. A common issue writers face is writer's block, but rather than stopping and waiting, one of his solutions is pushing through and continuing to write. This means he takes the piece he’s working on and switches the emotion he’s putting into it, such as making a sad poem sound happy or an angry poem seem sad. This helps give a different perspective to work with, but this can be applied to any scenario. Another common struggle all people face about their work is not feeling like it is good enough to share. But instead of fixing, editing, and continuously trying to push yourself beyond comfort, Peterson recommends that “you surround yourself with positive people and share your work with others who understand what you're doing can not only lift you up but provide the positive environment you need to be able to eventually help yourself”.

How long did it take until he felt successful?

When I asked the Chief this question, I expected a specific moment later in his career when he finally felt like he’d made his impact. Even if it was making a certain amount of money or getting recognition from a celebrity. While those are equally good successful moments in one’s career, Chief’s moment was the very first time he read his poetry in an open mic night. The first poem he read was a poem about heartbreak, and while at the time, it didn’t seem like much after his performance was done an older man came up to shake his hand and thanked him for putting this feeling into words, which no one else seemed to be able to do before. This was his first moment where he felt success, one before many, I assume. One of his goals is to connect with anyone willing to listen in the audience, no matter if their experience with him was good or bad because either way he has impacted them. And every time someone in the audience is impacted by his words even if they don’t tell him directly he meets his goal making him a little more successful. 

What piece of advice do you offer?

As the interview came to an end, my last question was if he had any one piece of advice he would like to share with the kids at Newington High School. After a moment he answered that the best thing he could tell us is to “find something you're passionate about, become great at it, and then get people to pay you for it”. This advice isn’t just applied to writing but to any skill or hobby. As he spoke to the freshman class he used the school’s podium as an example. Building podiums is a person’s skill, and they know every little detail about it. They even got so good at making podiums that someone decided they were good enough to buy. This piece of advice is to lead anyone who listens, to hopefully a future where they can see themselves as proud as Chief is with the work he’s done. No matter if your interest is cooking, sports, talking, science, or even writing. Find something that you're passionate about, become great at it, and then get people to pay you for it.

Thank you to Chief the Poet for inspiring us with his words and his presence! 

Check out some of Chief's Poetry on his YouTube Channel!