What Is a Poetry Night in 2021?
July 2021
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK in March 2020, the UK poetry community did what it always does best. It adapted.
Within days, the whole of the UK poetry network seemed to adapt to a new online existence. Those first heady, scary days of lockdown you couldn’t open up your social media without seeing a new online open mic, slam-turned-podcast or Twitter book launch.
And slowly, secretly most of us grew to realise there was a whole other world of possibility for poetry in digital space. Personally, I took part in the world’s first animated poetry slam, did feature sets in New Zealand and turned my bag of tour books into a mini home post office. Whisper it, but some of us actually liked this new online poetry network.
The benefits of online poetry nights quickly began to add up. Just a few benefits included:
Accessibility | No more struggling to find a wheelchair accessible venue in the centre of town – people can click a button and join from home. They can even have a live transcript or see the poem written out on screen.
Community | In many ways online nights have been hugely helpful in building the poetry community. That night you always wanted to see in Manchester? Now you can. That poet who’s name you’ve heard forever? Now you’re meeting them in the chat.
Growth | When we ran the 2021 Vogon Slam, we had a higher turnout than the previous two physical events, with slammers from South America and Germany. Reaching more people with your poetry night is always fantastic.
Experimentation | If you wanted to try running your night with a different structure or format you could try it out. We ran two “open mic” episodes of Dead Darlings last year and I took part in a good handful of poetry nights that ran as podcasts to listen to in your own time. I’ve seen people use Zoom backgrounds to amazing artistic effect, which never would have happened before. Ideas like the Living Record festival gave poets a chance to rework their spoken word shows into intimate audio tours.
(Some Aspects of) Safeguarding | I put this on the list hesitantly as there are still challenges here, but clicking a button to boot a bad actor is much simpler than having to physically haul the abusive open mic-er off-stage.
Personally, I’d be very happy for every in-person and online poetry night to have this iconic Natalie-Imbruglia-Approved background set.
I think the reason we were all able to adapt so successfully is testament to the DIY nature of poetry in the UK (and beyond). Putting on events from scrap is what we do.
The mic doesn’t work? Shout.
The venue is closed for weeks for plumbing and no-one told the promoter? Let’s take it to the park.
It’s literally illegal to meet in basements and share stories? Grab the laptop.
We don’t really have the infrastructure and money of the music industry or the comedy circuit – every poet is also a promoter, creating spaces (often without a mic or a stage) to say words to people. And in the next few months, the real challenge for all of us won’t be as writers. It’ll be as promoters.
Although most of us have gotten something out of online poetry nights, ultimately we still yearn to be in a room of strangers sharing stories and catching up afterwards over a few drinks. So how do we use our DIY ethic to get the poetry beast out of its slumber and back on the road without sacrificing the benefits of online nights?
A term I’m hearing more and more often is that nights plan to “go hybrid” once we’re allowed back together in physical spaces. In principle, that sounds awesome but in practice there’s a lot to think about here, particularly given how low-to-no-budget most poetry nights are.
Not to mention the fact many poetry venues STILL struggle with basic Wi-Fi or even phone signal for hot-spotting (naming no names Vogue Fabrics Dalston - home to the fantastic Spoken Word London).
In my mind, I can think of three potential approaches to making a hybrid poetry night…
The One-On-One-Off Model
How it works: A poetry night where one gig is in person, then the next is online.
Pros: It’s definitely the easiest and most cost-effective model. No mucking about with additional tech / personnel at the venue and no reliance on dodgy venue Wi-Fi.
Cons: In-person gigs will still struggle with accessibility and geographic restrictions. Online gigs lack the social benefits of meeting new poets and networking.
The Livestream Model
How it works: The gig takes place in person, but is also livestreamed at home. This is the solution a lot of theatres have used over the past year to keep audiences.
Pros: Your usual in-person audience can still attend and the online audience you’ve grown can watch from anywhere in the world.
Cons: There are both experiential and logistical cons here. On the experiential side, the big drawback is those watching from home can only ever watch. They can’t cheer, whoop, holler and definitely can’t share a poem. There’s also a balance to be struck – if the experience is fantastic watching from home, then why would an in-person audience bother to attend?
On the logistics side, we have to face reality: we’re (usually) not working with theatres or big budgets. To make this work the most basic set-up requires a camera and a room mic linked up to a laptop with a steady internet connection. Then there’s personnel: you need at least a camera operator and someone on the laptop. If you want two cameras, you need to add an extra cameraperson and editing software to cut between cameras.
That’s a lot of extra tech and at least a crew of 3-4 people – a lot for a no-budget night.
And even if you do all that (and the Wi-Fi holds), people watching from home can just watch, not participate. Which leads us into…
The Fully Interactive Model
How it works: The same set-up as The Livestream Model, but with the ability for online viewers to call in and participate.
Pros: In many ways this is the ideal solution, providing the most parity of experience for those in the room and watching online.
Cons: It’s also the hardest solution. You’d need to set-up the livestream model (already requiring at least one camera, one room mic, one laptop and Wi-Fi plus a crew of 3-4 people). Then you also need to add a projector, a screen to project online open mic-ers onto and additional speakers alongside your normal PA. Realistically you’ll probably want to add a second laptop and person to mute the venue when home open mic-ers are speaking and run the projector.
So now your minimum shopping list is: Camera, room mic, two laptops, projector, screen, speakers, and a crew of 4-5 people. And that’s on top of your usual basic requirements of a venue, a host, a mic, a PA and seating.
And again it’s totally reliant on venue Wi-Fi.
I’m sure in reality, none of these models will actually be the exact route hybrid nights end up going. The next few months we’ll try different ideas. Some will stick and some won’t. Some nights will be at home online, some will go back to business as usual and some will find a mid-point in between in their own way.
The one thing I’m truly confident in is that, online or offline, the poetry community isn’t going anywhere. We’re tenacious, scrappy and put the work in to survive. There’s a lot to do – now’s we need to get started.