Twen­ty-one-year-old writer, spo­ken word po­et and teach­ing artist Alexan­dra Stew­art, is the cur­rent First Cit­i­zens Na­tion­al Po­et­ry Slam Cham­pi­on. A four-time fi­nal­ist of the same com­pe­ti­tion and the sec­ond-place con­tes­tant of the pop­u­lar po­et­ry com­pe­ti­tion in 2017, Alexan­dra has per­formed both lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly (USA and UK).

In spite of the fact that many have ques­tioned her de­ci­sion, Alexan­dra de­cid­ed to make a ca­reer out of her pas­sion, a de­ci­sion that she de­scribes as be­ing one of the most ter­ri­fy­ing she has ever made. While all her friends went off to uni­ver­si­ty, she worked with the 2centsmove­ment on school tours and run­ning work­shops, an ex­pe­ri­ence that she says has helped her to im­prove as both a per­former and a teacher. Re­cent­ly, the WE mag­a­zine team got an op­por­tu­ni­ty to hear from Alexan­dra. This is her ‘against all odds’ sto­ry.

I bat­tled with self-doubt, es­pe­cial­ly when well-in­ten­tioned peo­ple en­cour­aged me to go to school, get a re­al job, and let that “spo­ken word thing” be my hob­by. Some­times, I won­dered if they were right. I grew up in a sin­gle par­ent fam­i­ly and I’ve watched my mum car­ry the fi­nan­cial bur­den of an en­tire house­hold on her back. I’ve watched her pray and make bread and fish type mir­a­cles for din­ner. There I was choos­ing to spend my time on po­et­ry. Most artists know the fear and the doubt of ig­nor­ing the tra­di­tion­al route. How­ev­er, there are peo­ple mak­ing this work and I want to be one of them. I’ve felt frus­trat­ed and over­whelmed but giv­ing up has nev­er been an op­tion. This is not a sto­ry of what I have over­come but what I hope to con­tin­ue over­com­ing.

Af­ter four years in the fi­nals, it feels so good to win the ti­tle of Slam Cham­pi­on. Strangers hail me out on the street with con­grat­u­la­tions and bud­ding po­ets mes­sage me for ad­vice more than be­fore. I am in­cred­i­bly grate­ful for all the sup­port. Now that I’ve achieved this goal I’m ea­ger to pro­duce my first so­lo show as well as a few se­cret projects that I know will ex­cite my au­di­ences.

There wasn’t an ‘AHA’ mo­ment in my life that made me re­alise that po­et­ry was my ide­al form of ex­pres­sion. When did your best friend be­come your best friend? Most of us can’t pin­point a date but we know it was some­where be­tween hel­lo and I love you. I al­ways loved read­ing and when the books I want­ed to read didn’t ex­ist, I just de­cid­ed to write them. When writ­ing books seemed to take too long I de­cid­ed to try po­ems. Dis­cov­er­ing po­et­ry was like find­ing a cheat code to the four-minute nov­el. If art was a coun­try, writ­ing would be my neigh­bour­hood and po­et­ry would be the house I live in. Even though some­times I va­ca­tion in many oth­er places (writ­ing short sto­ries, paint­ing, play­ing the pi­ano, danc­ing) I al­ways come home to po­et­ry.

They say art in­spires art. I say they’re right. Mu­sic fills me up with the de­sire to cre­ate. I lis­ten to every­thing from Chopin to Miles Davis to Ed Sheer­an to Kes to Free­town to Hans Zim­mer. I’m al­so a vo­ra­cious read­er: you’ll find me nose-deep in Span­ish dic­tio­nar­ies, love po­ems, crime nov­els or the Bible. My favourite sto­ry right now is ‘The Man in Bo­go­ta’ by Amy Hempel. Who in­spires me most? God. I al­ways find new po­ems af­ter spend­ing time in the pres­ence of cre­ation; sun­sets, moun­tains, peo­ple and the foamy tip of a Mara­cas wave.

My great­est bless­ing is my fam­i­ly. I tru­ly trea­sure how they con­tin­ue to in­vest time, en­er­gy and sup­port with­out ex­pect­ing any­thing ex­cept that I do my best. My mum es­pe­cial­ly has sac­ri­ficed more than I can thank her for. This in­ter­view wouldn’t ex­ist if weren’t for her love. My broth­er is my best friend. My aunt and un­cle are al­ways just a phone call away. I know that not every­one has this, and I refuse to ever take such a gift for grant­ed.

You can find out what Alexan­dra is up to and see per­for­mances on In­sta­gram @talk­tothe­fro. Or join her mail­ing list for blogs and po­et­ry on talk­tothe­fro@word­press.com. Her face­book page is Alexan­dra C Stew­art. For book­ings email: Acg­stew­art@hot­mail.com.