So You Wanna Host a Poetry Reading Series
Rumor has it you want to host a poetry reading in your local community. You think it is the fast track to fame and fortune. Is that true? I mean I hear you have an incredible entrepreneurial spirit and you want to dig into your community and provide a forum for poets and others to voice their opinions. I am told you are dedicated and loving but can be mean spirited when the spirit moves you. You have an aesthetic drive that is willing to work overtime. And now you want to take your poetry career to the apex of being a host whose time has come. . . .
Congratulations, you are either a nut case like myself or someone who really cares about poets and poetry at the grassroots community level. (Editor's note: Maybe they are the same thing.) Running a poetry reading is like nothing I have ever encountered or prepared myself for in my life. You are dealing with a sensitive public (poets) in a marketplace that seems poetry-hostile, but in reality they just don’t really know that poetry exists. You will be working in the context of media that either ignore poetry or run articles like “Poetry Is Dead” when you know it is vital to life. These are just some of the obstacles, and we haven’t even discussed finding a proper venue (see below) and living with the venue owner. . . . And then waking up one morning to find the venue is closed. (This is what happened to our PoeticLicense reading series: after 18 months flourishing at the Moondog, the café was sold and turned into a sushi bar, so once again we had to move.)
There are also some incredible rewards -- but money is not one of them, so if you are money-motivated skip to the next article; in fact, you might want to skip the Poetry section altogether. Aside from the overall satisfaction of giving poets a home, I believe my favorite moment as a host is when someone who has never read their poetry out loud comes up to the stage, sometimes after months of encouragement, stands there reading their work and is loved by the audience. This is my proudest moment and the biggest payoff for the headaches of hosting.
This article is intended to get you started setting up and promoting a reading at the local level. We may follow it with pieces on sustaining a reading series once you've started it, keeping it running smoothly, taking it to the next level and what that means.
Purpose____________________
First, determine the purpose of your reading series. It is very important when creating a reading to sit down alone or with fellow poets and decide why you are doing this and what you hope to accomplish. For example, with PoeticLicense we are driven to create a safe environment for poets and to nurture new poets. We also intend to make poetry viable in the community. We work hard to pay our poets, and featured poets usually earn between $50 and $100 for their readings. In the future, we hope to increase that. We also make it easy for poets to sell their chapbooks at the readings.
It is most important to think through & write out your purposes both for yourself and for the poets in your soon-to-be burgeoning aesthetic community. Keep it simple and to the point so that you can keep your goals uppermost in your own mind and in your poets' minds. Over time, readings tend to stray from their original impulses; sometimes this is good, sometimes it is bad. By reiterating your purpose you keep it on the tracks.
It takes guts, commitment & organization to run a successful reading; it is not something that most poets even want to think about. Sometimes it is a thankless task. But if you keep your purpose in mind you will succeed.
Community____________________
Poetry is such a solitary undertaking. When you create a reading this very personal activity suddenly becomes a group thing. And you have never seen controversy until you have a bunch of poets on your hands. As the host it is your job to create a community. It is not a popularity contest (this I found out the hard way). It is about being a leader, willing to intervene in petty assaults on person and aesthetics, generally keeping the reading going & keeping the focus on your purpose. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to do so.
Types of Readings____________________
There are a variety of reading formats:
- General open mic that includes other art forms like music and comedy
- Poetry-only open mic
- Poetry slam (which has its own set of rules if you intend to send a team to the National Poetry Slam)
- Featured readings (with or without an open mic)
Host/MC____________________
I have yet to see a textbook on hosting. I have studied various hosts from Ed Sullivan to Johnny Carson, as well as other poetry venue hosts. I looked for what worked and created rapport. But a poetry reading is again very different from other art events. It's a communal undertaking: The audience becomes the artist becomes the audience. In the cyclical thing that takes place at a reading, it is important to keep attention focused on one thing and one thing only: the poet who is reading at that very moment. The audience will take the lead from the host and it is a matter of respect. It is important to let folks know that when they are on stage they deserve respect, so they best give it when they are in the audience. It can be a magical thing when it all comes together.
Finding a venue____________________
This step is probably the trickiest of them all. We have held readings in coffeehouses, clubs, bars, bookstores and even on the street. For the sake of this piece lets talk about coffeehouses, the natural home of poetry. There are a couple of requirements you want to fulfill:
- Location: Where do you want to hold your reading? How will the poets that you are inviting get to the reading? Will it be easy to reach? Is it near transportation?
- The room: I hate holding a reading amidst the espresso machines and regular coffeehouse traffic. Some coffeehouses have separate rooms so you can isolate the reading from the noisy coffeehouse atmosphere. Ideally this is what you want. The sound of cappuccino machines rings in every poet’s ears. See if you can find a place with a separate space.
- The owner: Make friends; find an owner who really wants to have a poetry reading in their place -- not just to build traffic but because they want to have poetry in their venue. An owner who doesn't care about giving a home to poets & only wants to use you to build traffic will always be an irritant. An owner who wants poetry not only will get poetry but also will build traffic. It is a matter of priorities. When you find a poetry-friendly owner, go over what you want to do, discuss your purpose for the reading, how you hope to accomplish it and your promotional plans. Get the owner to work with you, running ads, making fliers, etc.
Promoting your new reading____________________
You should use each of these avenues for promotion, to get the word out as widely as possible:
- Mailing list: Make a mailing list of every poet that you can find in your area. Build your list by having a sign-up sheet at each reading & giving out your email address so that people can send you theirs. One of the keys to a successful reading is working that list. I primarily use an email list and have built the current reading from about 15 people every week to 50 to 70 weekly.
- Newsletter: We put out a weekly newsletter (PLNews) that gives a rundown of scheduled features, poetry news and a review of last week’s reading.
- Flyers: Get flyers out to schools, bookstores, and other readings. Make a postcard-style flyer that you can carry with you whenever you go to other readings, bookstores & coffeehouses, & post it on their bulletin boards or drop a few copies on their shelf for free flyers.
- Your presence at other readings: Get out to readings; tell people about what you are doing & invite them to attend.
If you're involved in running a local reading series or thinking about starting one & you have questions, write to Larry Jaffe or come on down to the About.com Poetry Forum to discuss your experience with other poetry hosts.
Larry Jaffe is a co-founder & host, with Donn Deedon, of the PoeticLicense reading series in Los Angeles, now in its 6th year, & writes for the About.com Poetry Museletter as our Los Angeles correspondent.
