Young Writers Project held a live and digital Poetry Slam at the Champlain Mill and streamed it live on youngwritersproject.org. Click here to see the recorded version.
Running the slam was Geof Hewitt, poetry slam artist and a curriculum/writing coordinator for Vermont DOE. He said at the end of the session to the gathering and later reiterated it to me privately that the quality of the poetry was higher than any slam he has ever given -- adult or otherwise. "Your biggest problem is that for those out there watching, this may have been intimidating."
The session showed us several things:
- We absolutely can shrink the geographic burden for Vermont kids by streaming workshops, events and gatherings.
- The slammers loved the idea that their words were being streamed and it added to the sense of a large audience. (We had about 30 people in the space.)
- The chat portion of the stream was great though we had such volume it ended up taking two people to handle. (We monitored.)
- Proper lighting and a back drop really gave the video an amazing feel. James Valastro, a videographer in Vermont, came in and devoted hours setting it up for us and we are very appreciative.
- Other help kudos go to Grady Farnum-Rendino of CVU and Eva DeVries of YWP who set up the stream.
- Streaming is incredibly easy. (But don't tell anyone.)
Another note: This is all made possible because of a gift from Physician's Computer Company (and a discount from Small Dog) on 10 I-Macs. We now have an incredible computer lab for workshops, training and other events and one of the I-Macs was deeply involved in the streaming!
More events will be coming.
Posted in
Submitted by ggevalt on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 14:42
Post new comment