Elise Hu

We're all creating the same things from the same things.

And yet there are unique voices.

And I do believe that you are one of them.

I read that when you were, I think, a freshman in high school, you described yourself as a live wire of nervous hormones and underdeveloped and overexcitable.

Did you experience all of those emotions again?

Yes, exactly.

I love that quote of yours.

So one afternoon after school, you went over to a friend's house and watched the documentary Slam Nation.

You said this about watching slam poetry for the first time.

I felt my two secret loves, poetry and theater, had come together, had a baby, a baby I needed to get to know.

So why were these loves secret?

You were writing these poems on your own in your journals.

And then out of the blue, you received a letter informing you that someone had registered you for the New York City Teen Poetry Slam.

To this day, I believe you have no idea who signed you up.

What did you think?

Your mom had broken her leg, her ankle.

I believe that there was a woman that was in the audience that you described as eight feet tall having a very specific reaction that really encouraged you.

Can you share that story?

You mentioned that you grew up in lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center and you were 13 living in New York City on 9-11 where you experienced the tragedy.

You've written about it quite beautifully.