EPTFor the last few months, I've been throwing around the concept of doing a Day9 Daily-esque video presentation that's focused on poetry. The format would be: I critique poems submitted by audience, point out specific flaws in the poem, then relate those flaws to famous poems that have used certain techniques effectively or avoided specific flaws in creative ways.
An internet television show about poetry would not only encourage people to write more poetry, but it would also be a fun chance for me to talk about a subject that I love so much, and to share that love with anyone who tunes in. Instead of just being a stuffy genre bound for English class handouts and discussed at high-brow dinner parties, poetry should resonate with every person in the most basic of levels and tell a story, no matter how fragmented the poem is.
I feel like my personality would be fine for the type of content I'd produce. I have a decently energetic teaching style and was the captain of the debate team in high school, so luckily I won't be too dry or boring while still making crucial points in a clear manner. I tend to use plenty of analogies that are both funny and topical (I once told a fellow student his poem was like a stale peep, it was hard and lifeless, but in a delicious way. Stale peeps are better, imho), and can bring out humor when needed. Nothing to the order of a slow cop chasing another slow person in a footrace, but I should be fine ^_^
While the set-up of a stream/video-cast like this would be rather easy to do, I have brainstormed a few major hurdles I will face.
1) I am not a published author in the grand sense of the word. I am a 21 year old aspiring poet with no credentials, and that does not provide a good reason for anyone to tune in or to even take my advice/criticism. My 'cred' is limited to poetry that has appeared in student publications throughout high school and college, and a 2nd place victory in a playwriting competition hosted by the local community college during my senior year of high school. I also have some strong opinions on poetry that I share with most of my college professors, who I have talked with extensively thanks to attending a small liberal arts college.
2) Each show's research would be a huge burden. From my understanding of Day9's own preparations, he spends a few hours for his regular shows generating show notes and most of the day on Monday preparing for the Funday Monday. For my show, I would have to research and analyze a number of poems that will help illustrate the points I attempt to make in my criticism of people's work, and as such my show notes will be very detailed. Not only will this take many hours of reading the actual poetry, but scouring previous critics interpretations of those poems in order to defend my own interpretations of the poems.
3) User submitted content will initially be hard to acquire. This is kind of the chicken and the egg argument, in that no one wants to submit to a show that doesn't exist, but the show can't exist without submissions. I plan to use twitter and Facebook, as well as contacting people that I know personally to submit their poetry for criticism. I wouldn't mind submissions from Team Liquid as well, considering the vast amount of poems that are posted in the blog section. I love reading them even when they aren't top notch poems because honestly, like Brood War, poetry will never ever go away, and the more people that write and read poetry the stronger and better the writing community gets.
tl;dr: I like poetry, and I want to do a poetry video-cast on the internet. It might be hard.
Do you think my idea has some promise? Would you tune in for such a broadcast? What ideas and contributions would you make to improve upon this sort of thing?
Thanks Team Liquid! <3
