World Class Poetry Blog

I Have A Dream: Poetry Videos That Rock
9 May 2008, the poet @ 9:01 pm

(Source) For many Broadway buffs, the idea of pairing poetry and song starts and stops at Cats, The Musical. But composer Louis Rosen and Broadway vocalist Capathia Jenkins prove the possibilities are endless.

Actually, the possibilities are endless. This is the message of Millennial Poetics.

I have in mind, actually, something similar and have had for a long time. Instead of using Jazz as the musical score (which seems to be the music genre of choice), I’d like to use rock music, original creations by a contemporary band, or classical music from the public domain, in conjunction with video in order to create a multimedia poetic experience with my own original poetry. Since I am not a musician or an expert video technician, this would have to be a collaborative project. But I do think the world is ready for such an experiment.

What I see of poetry videos today is merely a beginning. I remember when MTV first came into being. The videos were very primitive and with some exceptions many of them were simply concert footage from bands on tour. Over time, music video producers got more creative and sophisticated. The songs began to be written with the video in mind and attractiveness, as well as the ability to act and perform in front of a video camera, became more important to music artists.

I see something similar happening to poetry and I’d like to be there in the forefront. But I need partners. I can’t do it alone. I actually have a few projects I’d like to start on but I don’t have all the resources available to me as yet.

The videos I see on YouTube are good, but they are primitive in the way that MTV videos were primitive in 1984, the year I graduated high school. Even my own attempts to produce video are modest compared to the possibilities. I get frustrated trying to create my own. Tonight, for instance, I was hoping to have created something that might be worth sharing with you on this blog, but before I could finish I hit a snag and Windows Movie Maker crashed on me before I could save what I had. It was a simple video of me reading that I was going to mix with photos of a vacation to Germany that I took with my wife.

I’m confident that as my video making skills increase I can produce a video worth sharing, but how long will that be? Meanwhile, I keep dreaming ….

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