The lights at Kickbutt Coffee dim as senior Daniel Cartwright takes the stage to perform one of his slam poems once again.

Cartwright began seriously writing slam poetry his freshman year after becoming inspired by watching a YouTube video. He had always been a writer, but spoken word was different.

“It’s a lot more of a performing way to do poetry,” Cartwright said. “It’s really meant to connect the speaker and the audience. Rather than just reading it, you speak it, as the name suggests. Some traditional poets don’t care for it, but I really enjoy it because it’s a lot more personal for me.”

Kickbutt Coffee Bar is the small coffee shop where Cartwright performs his poetry. The mic is open every Sunday night to anyone who’s brave enough to go up there and share their most personal writing. For Cartwright, the first time getting up there wasn’t easy.

“I just about peed my pants that first performance,” Cartwright said. “However, once I started performing, I forgot about the fifty people watching and it becomes just me on a stage, doing what I love and what I’ve poured my heart into.”

The inspiration and motivation behind Cartwright’s poetry comes from everyone around him. The struggles of everyday life are what influence his writing and with that he’s able to affect people.

“He uses his talent with words to touch others, relating to the audience with his own experiences and giving them hope,” best friend Amanda Perez said. “He knows what people need to hear, because he understands people.”

It’s a gift that most people don’t possess to be able to take one look at a person and recognize the struggles they’re going through. Daniel is one of the few people who seem to have acquired thisability, and his writing reflects that.

“I write about being in class and seeing someone that you can tell is struggling with something and you want to say something and you want to encourage them, but you keep your mouth shut and you don’t know why,” Cartwright said.

From an early age, Daniel had to ability to capture the most vivid of experiences through poetry. His work as a junior in English class was most impressive according to Henry Bostwick, Daniel’s English III teacher.

“I began to recognize that Daniel had the power to fill his writing with very vivid imagery,” Bostwick said. “He was able to capture the feelings he had about an individual and his or her struggles with a degree of clarity and insight that is not very common for someone of his age.”

Writing is important, according to Daniel, and because of this reason, Bostwick decided that all he needed was a push in the right decision.

“I advised him that he should begin to practice his writing skills and develop his voice for his poetry,” Bostwick said. “And I don’t want to say that he started to go to these poetry slams because of my influence, but the next thing I know he’s doing just that.”

And so when the lights dim and the microphone turns on, Daniel has the opportunity to have a voice and affect people through his poetry. He has the opportunity to make change.

“We all want to make a difference, but we’re scared to take that leap of faith to do it out of our own fear of judgment or criticism or failure,” Daniel said. “It’s a passion and really when you dive into a passion you just lose yourself.”