KJ Hayward's poetry passion wins Australian Poetry Slam title

Performing original poems about flaws in the education system and toxic masculinity, the self-taught poet had not even planned to enter the Australian Poetry Slam Competition.

The home-schooled teen, who has been travelling Australia with her family for three years, was back in Ballarat visiting family and friends when she entered a local open mike night for Ballarat Spoken Word two months ago. It was her first public performance of her poetry.

"I like poetry because it helps me to articulate how I view the world," KJ said. "I love that feeling of wanting to jump out of your seat and change the world after hearing a poem."

In the audience at Ballarat Spoken Word was a representative from the APSC who invited her to take part in the heats of the competition in Shepparton.

She won that, and the state final at the State Library of Victoria, before taking her first ever flight to Sydney to compete in the national finals at the Sydney Opera House where she beat out 14 other poets to tie with experienced NSW poet Rob Waters.

Competition was so tight between the pair they could not be split after two rounds and were declared joint champions.

KJ, 16, explained that slam poetry is a form of spoken word poetry that is more rhythmic, uses different word techniques such as alliteration, and has more of a "rap" feel to it that traditional poetry.

"It's a poem that's designed to move someone ... and has a bit more performance to it."

Unlike some poets, KJ's works fly quickly from her thoughts.

"For me it's probably a bit different to other people. I write poems really quickly, sometimes it's 15 minutes and I have a two minute poem. Other times it takes a couple of hours and it's only a rare occasion it takes a couple of days to write one," she said.

The first poem she performed at the national final Ode to My Teachers was about her experience in school before she transitioned to home schooling.

"It put some closure on my experience in normal school where I always felt like I was expected to be an A student even though I was excelling at school it felt like my achievements were owned by them so long as I was doing well, it made them look good but it did burn me out," she said.

"I really wanted to point out that the system we do have for traditional schooling is not as updated as it should be and there's a lot of flaws."

Her second poem Proud was about the over-sexualisation of females in the media.

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"I always have a feminist undertone to my poems," she said. "We should love our bodies, we don't need to be over-sexualised and we are not here to advertise or be looked at, we are not just an image, we are people."

KJ would love to become an advocate for youth poetry and share how it can give young people a voice.

"I think if people had their voice represented by others and themselves through poetry I think there would be better outcomes in our school system and all those things I want to change."

As Australian Poetry Slam Champions, KJ and Mr Waters will share a $20,000 prize pack which includes professional mentoring, publishing, touring and performance opportunities.

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