Victoria King
Inklings: How did you develop a strong connection towards poetry?
Victoria King: I started poetry when I was in middle school because my Mom was a poet. Ever since then, I’ve kinda just been really interested. I saw her write a poem about me and that sounds kind of self-absorbed, but that’s what it was. She wrote a poem about me and that’s what got me interested in poetry. Since then, I’ve kind of been using it as my tool to express myself. I consider myself a pretty independent individual but you know sometimes we all have to get emotions out and that was my way to do so. So, all of my poems are pretty personal and connected to what I’ve experienced.
Inklings: Do you have a certain routine for sitting down and starting to write?
King: I don’t have a certain routine, just because there’s no way – I was actually just explaining this to my parents – there’s no way for me to get into a mood to write, I just have to write. I just have to feel any emotion strong enough to put it into words on paper. There’s no like, I sit down, I get tea, it’s just I’m emotional and I’m gonna write something.
Inklings: What are some common misconceptions students or your friends make about poetry?
King: I feel like a lot of people, especially once you learn about poetry in English class, depending on who taught you poetry, it could be a bit of a drag. Especially once you get into older poetry; it’s hard when you’re introduced to poetry in an older language that doesn’t seem relevant to you and who you are. So, I feel like a lot of people think it’s not relevant today or kind of boring, but I think the whole point of poetry is to be personal. So, once you find something that relates to you, you’re going to have an appreciation for it.
Inklings: When you tell other students you write and perform poetry, how do they react?
King: I’ve actually never told anybody, they kinda just figure it out! I’ve done stuff with poetry for RV and so people kinda just come up to me like “Oh! You do Poetry Out Loud” and I’m like “Yup!” I don’t necessarily say anything, it’s just the people know. I don’t wanna say there’s any specific reaction, but some people find it pretty cool once they find out, others are unfazed, so I guess it kinda depends on the person.
Inklings: What kind of emotions do you feel when you recite poetry compared to when you write it?
King: For writing poetry, the biggest difference for me is that when I write, I am experiencing that emotion in that moment. So, the emotion is more heightened and it’s – the best word I could use is – more raw. There’s not necessarily a buffer or a filter. When I perform poetry, it’s almost like going back and trying to go back into that emotion, because sometimes that thing I wrote about in that moment is not what I’m experiencing right now. Even though it is a part of me and a part of something I went through, it’s not currently happening. So, I won’t say that the emotion when I perform is false, it’s just simply not as strong because I’m attempting to remember and put myself back in that position.
Inklings: Do you believe that you being a person of color differentiates your audience’s perspective on you?
King: Yes, definitely. I say that because, and I wouldn’t say it’s insulting because I’m a person of color, it’s because I write about being a black woman. Not all the time, but a majority of my poems are experiencing America as a black person. So, you definitely get an audience that relates to those kinds of conflicts. I won’t say that I don’t get an audience of other races, cause that would not be true, but I feel like a majority is definitely black young people who relate, or even in some cases older black people who are happy to see some type of hope.
Inklings: Do you think you, being a woman, changes the way you write?
King: Okay, so I don’t know how true this is because I cannot be my own audience but I feel like that a lot of my poems are pretty strong and heavy and angry. I feel like it’s hard to answer this question because it’s hard to talk about womanhood without inserting black womanhood. If I was to talk about general womanhood, you know. Those are not normal quote on quote normal emotions for a woman to express freely. Now if you want to talk about black womanhood, according to stereotypes I fit right into that path. Is that my goal, no, but it’s definitely something that I am aware of because not all people, some people, always look at me and will always see a black angry woman. If my poetry portrays that then they have no reason to think otherwise. But also, on that note, if I am angry I feel like I have a reason to be and my poems show that.
Inklings: How do you feel about the way black women are stereotyped and how do you think we could change that in society?
King: The lovely thing about stereotypes is that I don’t think that there’s much changing them. Lovely, of course, I meant sarcastically. The way I think about it is that I am not responsible. As long as I am a good human being I am not responsible for how someone else views me. There’s just empowerment in knowing that we’re not a monolith. That we are so dynamic because we’re humans; we experience human emotions and I don’t think we should have to try to pretend that we’re not angry when we are angry just because of the stereotype. Because there are things that I write about that I am very angry about and I have every right to be angry. So, I don’t think it’s our job to try to erase the stereotype because I think our job is to exist and whatever that means to you, exist.
Inklings: If you taught English at RV, what would you change?
King: I love this question and it is so fun for me because I may end up working in the education system at one point and I have not been at RV for a long time so I don’t know how freshman and sophomore English is taught at RV. I have only seen English at RV at an AP junior and senior level, and there’s so much more to the English curriculum and English in general than those two classes. In a general sense, I believe it is difficult to engage students in something, especially at a higher and more complex level, with something they have no interest in. Poetry is a beautiful thing, but by the senior year AP Literature Poetry Unit, most students hate it. Why? Because most students are introduced to poetry with poems made so very long ago that it seems completely irrelevant to their lives, so they decided from then on out, poetry is boring and old and irrelevant. The reason I love poetry is because of how I was introduced to it. The same thing is the case for essay writing and creative writing. You can’t engage students with topics that they feel are irrelevant to them. As you learn when you write an essay, you have to hook the reader in at the beginning of the essay. That same thinking should be applied to learning. Students’ introduction to creative and essay writing should be about something they enjoy. If students hate it from the start they will never truly be learning any of the technical and analytical things teachers want them to. Ask students to write a persuasive essay about their favorite artist being the best of all time, ask students to write research papers on their favorite actors and their impact on society, ask students to put their favorite moment in their life in story format, let students read poetry relevant to their everyday lives. Analytical and critical thinking will never sit with them if they never feel engaged; these things can be implemented if the stories, essays and poems are relevant to students.
Inklings: Where do you plan on taking your poetry in the future?
King: That’s a great question. One of my goals is to write a poetry book. I don’t know how soon or not soon that will be. But it is one of my goals to write a poetry book. I’ve been thinking about, since I’m graduating , I’ve been thinking about where poetry is going to be in my life and I do want it to be a good chunk of my life. I want to continue performing. I don’t know of many resources to do so, but it is something I want to continue to do for sure.
Inklings: What is the message that you have for young poets and writers that can’t get started, that are too scared to get started or just can’t write? [For example], message for them to keep going?
King: My message is that you may not fall in love with your first poem. I have been writing since I was eight. I look back at the poems and I wonder why did I say those words. But I was younger. It’s important to get started. The hardest part is to start. I feel like the way that I think about it is just words on a paper. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t but that’s the point of writing. You shouldn’t have to share everything you write. Have a journal of just poems and just write whatever that is. Write about your emotions, write about things that happened, write about random things. Just put words on paper and eventually you’ll find your voice.