Resources
From Category: Poetry in Performance
25 Animations of Great Literary Works
This article at Open Culture features links to short films animating such literary classics as an Emily Dickinson poem, the parable of Plato's Cave, and excerpts from Kafka's diaries and Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf.
6 Tips for Successful Poetry Readings
At the Submittable blog, poet John Sibley Williams gives useful advice for selecting and performing your work in public. Williams is the author of As One Fire Consumes Another (Orison Poetry Prize) and Skin Memory (Backwaters Prize) and the editor of the Inflectionist Review.
92nd Street Y Virtual Poetry Center
Featured authors include Truman Capote, Chinua Achebe, Joyce Carol Oates, Doris Lessing, and Norman Mailer.
An Incomplete History of Slam
"For us in Chicago, there's the happy memory and joy that our child, our visceral, cranky, energetic and conscious hometown poetry, has taken a life of its own in the whole of the world."
Audio Archives from the Academy of American Poets
Beginning with John Berryman's historic first reading of The Dream Songs on Halloween night, 1963, the Academy of American Poets has presented and recorded over 700 poetry readings, lectures, and symposia, making the Poetry Audio Archive one the world's richest aural records of poetry. You can search for audio clips by author or poem title, or browse the most popular selections. See their online store for poetry CDs to purchase.
Billy Collins Action Poetry
Delightful short animated films in which former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poems out loud as accompanying images illustrate his words.
Bookish & Writer Events: Sarah Nicolas Newsletter
Sarah Nicolas is the author of the YA novels Keeping Her Secret and Dragons Are People, Too. Her weekly newsletter on Substack features listings of upcoming author readings, book fairs, and writing workshops.
Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge
Poetry slam open mike and featured readers can be enjoyed every Wednesday night at this club in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Climbing PoeTree
Climbing PoeTree is a spoken-word performance duo that uses art as a force for popular education, community organizing, and personal transformation. Poets, performance artists, print makers, video and graphic designers, muralists, and new media architects, Alixa and Naima create compelling works at the service of their vision for a more just and livable world. Climbing PoeTree's award-winning performance is composed of dual-voice spoken word poetry, hip hop, and multi-media theatre that challenges its audiences to remember their humanity, dissolves apathy with hope, exposes injustice, and helps heal our inner trauma so that we may begin to cope with the issues facing our communities. Innovative educators, Alixa and Naima have lead hundreds of workshops in institutions from Columbia University to Rikers Island Prison. They are currently developing a multimedia curriculum based of their latest production, Hurricane Season, that employs art and culture to help learners analyze systems of oppression and resistance, and build new leadership essential for fundamental social change.
Coffee House to Go
ESC! Magazine's monthly podcast for writers and the small press community offers readings of poetry, short fiction, interviews and reviews as well as featured music from independent bands and musicians.
DMQ Virtual Salon
Online literary journal DMQ Review began their Virtual Salon in 2020 when in-person poetry readings were cancelled due to the pandemic. Each month they publish three videos of contemporary poets, most of them former DMQ contributors or editors, reading from their new books. Featured authors have included Nin Andrews, JP Dancing Bear, Meg Eden, Christopher Salerno, and W. Todd Kaneko.
Empty Red Chair
This striking poetry video, by an Australian author who goes by the pen name "Initially NO", draws a provocative analogy between political prisoners and people involuntarily confined to psychiatric hospitals.
Folded Word
Independent literary press with a special interest in adapting short written works into a variety of electronic media. One of their projects is Shape of a Box, the first YouTube poetry journal, which features videos by poets such as Ellaraine Lockie, Dan Nowak, and Pris Campbell.
From the Fishouse
Audio archive of emerging poets features text and recordings of work by dozens of contemporary writers as diverse as Matthea Harvey, Leslie McGrath, Tyehimba Jess, and Xochiquetzal Candelaria.
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Blog
This blog from the sponsor of the renowned Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival features video clips of readings by major contemporary poets (see the "Poetry Fridays" sidebar link), plus news about other cultural programs that the Dodge Foundation sponsors in New Jersey and beyond.
How to Do a Killer Reading from Your Work
This guest column at Lit Mag News by Lambda Award winning novelist Lev Raphael offers tips for giving an engaging and polished performance of your work, online or in person.
Karla K. Morton
This Texas-based poet's book/CD combo, 'Wee Cowrin' Timorous Beastie', is a 17th-century Scottish epic story, written in rhyme, and set to an original musical score by the Juno award-winning Canadian composer Howard Baer. Morton's creative multimedia project brings the old world of European epic poetry together with a modern cinematic score.
Keeping Poetry Close: Copper Canyon Poets Read to You
Monica Sok, Ellen Bass, Philip Metres, and other authors of recent titles from prestigious poetry publisher Copper Canyon Press share excerpts from their work in this video series. Editor George Knotek says, "For this time when poetry is abundant but in-person communion with our loved ones is not—a time when we're turning to technology to help us connect with the faces and voices we miss—we offer here the faces and voices of our spring 2020 poets reading from their newest books to bring you both poetry and human connection, from their homes to yours."
Listen Notes
Listen Notes indexes over 650,000 podcasts that you can search by keyword for a specific person, topic, or show name.
Live Hope Love
Kwame Dawes, the University of South Carolina's poet-in-residence, launched this multimedia site to chronicle the experiences of HIV patients and caregivers in Jamaica. The site features his own profound and lyrical poetry as well as video interviews and background stories of the people who inspired him.
Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam
This Cambridge, Mass. nightclub offers a poetry slam open mike followed by featured readers and jazz band every Sunday evening. Check out their weblog for news and links to some of their regular performers.
Massachusetts Poetry Festival
This annual celebration of Massachusetts poets and small presses is held every October. The festival is based in Lowell, Mass., and also includes events around Boston, Worcester, Amherst, and the Berkshires. Videos from the festival are available on their YouTube channel: presenters include Rhina Espaillat, Robert Pinsky, Nick Flynn, and Martin Espada.
MotionPoems
MotionPoems features short, evocative, professionally produced videos that dramatize the poems being read on the soundtrack. Featured authors include Robert Bly, Todd Boss, Jane Hirshfield, and Freya Manfred. At present, they are not accepting unsolicited submissions.
National Jukebox
This project at the Library of Congress makes historic recordings of popular and classical music and spoken-word performances available online. Search the archives by artist name and genre, or simply enjoy the eclectic selections of the day. The collection features more than 10,000 78rpm disc sides issued by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1900 and 1925. Other material from the archives is currently being brought online.
New York Shakespeare Exchange: The Sonnet Project
The New York Shakespeare Exchange's mission is to expand the audience for Shakespeare's plays and to support innovative presentations. One of their ventures is The Sonnet Project, a series of short films juxtaposing a Shakespeare sonnet and a vignette set in a distinctive NYC location.
Notable Online at The Rumpus
Due to the coronavirus, most literary events and book launches moved online in 2020. Literary journal The Rumpus now offers this weekly calendar of noteworthy online literary events. To submit your event for consideration, contact notableNYC@therumpus.net. In the subject line of the email, please include the event's date. Please include the virtual platform, time zone, and a link to the event information in the body of your email.
Online School of Poetry
New venture seeks to bridge the worlds of literary academia and slam poetry. Instructors include former California poet laureate Quincy Troupe, performance poets Patricia Smith and Regie Gibson, prizewinning author Tom Daley.
Other People’s Flowers
Launched in 2018, Other People's Flowers is a weekly podcast that showcases submissions of poetry, fiction, and essays. Previously published work is accepted if you own the rights, but the podcast acquires the audio rights to your entry if they read it aloud on the show. Last new episode is from June 2019, but the archive is accessible here.
PD Info: Royalty Free Music
This archive of sound clips in various genres, from the website of the Public Domain Information Project, can help you enhance podcasts or other audiovisual recordings of your creative writing. Pricing starts at $7.95 per song.
Periodically Speaking
Presented at the New York Public Library and co-sponsored by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, this reading series showcases poets and prose writers from influential literary magazines, introduced by their editors. Videos of past readings can be viewed on the NYPL website.
Podcaster Academy
Award-winning radio host and producer Jeff Brown offers classes and one-on-one coaching to create more effective podcasts. The training covers skills such as sounding natural and conversational on-air, mastering the art of the interview, and structuring your content to hook listeners' attention.
PodMatch
PodMatch is a digital marketplace for helping podcasters and interviewees find each other. Hosts and guests can fill out profiles describing their audiences, areas of expertise, and possible topics. Using AI, PodMatch will generate suggested guests for your podcast and vice versa. While the site is not specifically literature-focused, it can be useful for authors to find podcasters with an interest in their book's topic or a similar target audience.
Poetry Films from the On Being Project
Poetry Films, a YouTube channel featuring animations of classic and contemporary poems, is a project of the public radio show On Being (Krista Tippett). Authors in the series include Rumi, Wendell Berry, and Naomi Shihab Nye.
Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Project
This joint venture of the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts awards over $100,000 in scholarships annually to high school students for memorizing and performing classic poems. Top prize is $20,000.
Poetry Series on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
PBS and the Poetry Foundation collaborated on this series of broadcasts featuring short-form profiles on living American poets and long-form segments on current debates in poetry. Listen/view past segments on their website.
Poetry.LA
Online video showcase of over 150 poets reading their work at various venues in Southern California. Poets featured include US Poet Laureate Kay Ryan and Anne Carson. The site also includes video interviews with authors and publishers. Poetry.LA was started by poet Hilda Weiss and videographer/writer Wayne Lindberg as a way to bring broader exposure to poets beyond the coffeehouses, bookstores and cafes where most of these readings were taped.
Poetryvlog.com
Video archive of contemporary poets reading their own work features a new short video every week. See website for instructions on submitting a video.
Quiddity: International Literary Journal & Public-Radio Program
Quiddity is a literary journal published by Springfield College-Benedictine University in Illinois. Contributors to the journal may also be invited to read their work and be interviewed about the writing process on Illinois Public Radio, an NPR affiliate. Links to samples of these broadcasts are available on their website. Contributors have included Douglas A. Blackmon, Dan Guillory, and Martin Willitts, Jr.
Six Video Poems at Poets & Writers
Multimedia presentations of poems by Anne Carson, Thylias Moss, and Aaron Fagan add new dimensions to the spoken word through interpretive dance, music, and graphics.
Spotify “Poetry: In Their Own Voices” Playlist
Created by the music streaming service Spotify for Women's History Month, this playlist features recordings of famous poets such as Marianne Moore, Rita Dove, Joy Harjo, Elizabeth Bishop, and Gwendolyn Brooks reading their own work. You will need a free or paid subscription to listen.
Tales from the Trail
The YouTube channel Tales from the Trail is a growing collection of distinct short videos showcasing original poetry inspired from hiking trails across the United States. If you are interested in writing a poem for Tales from the Trail, you can contact TalesfromtheTrail3@gmail.com.
Taylor Mali
Poetry slam champion and teachers' advocate Taylor Mali is also a driving force behind the award-winning Urbana Poetry Slam team, which performs every Tuesday night at the famed Bowery Poetry Club in New York City.
The Drum
Published 10 times a year, The Drum is an online literary journal that features short fiction, essays, novel excerpts, and interviews, exclusively in audio form. Featured authors have included Susan Orlean and Lydia Millet.
The Pedestal Magazine
Online journal of poetry, fiction, reviews, and artwork, edited by poet and songwriter John Amen. They also accept submissions of "slam" poetry performances (send as MP3 files). Contributors have included Jim Redmond, Nathan Leslie, Arlene Ang, JoSelle Vanderhooft, and Linda Leedy Schneider.
The Poem I Wish I Had Read
This YouTube channel, curated by the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College, features acclaimed contemporary poets reading and discussing poems that they wish they would have encountered as a teenager. The Poetry Center created this video series as an outreach project to spark high school students' interest in poetry.
The Poetic Voice
Poetry podcast from educational publisher Houghton Mifflin features contemporary poets such as Donald Hall, Alan Shapiro and Natasha Trethewey reading and discussing their work.
Tips for a Good Poetry Reading
This post from award-winning poet Diane Lockward's blog offers sound advice for poets, hosts, and audience members. Lockward is the author of What Feeds Us and Eve's Red Dress, both from Wind Publications. (Hat tip to The Practicing Writer newsletter for the link.)
Virtual Literary Events Calendar at the Washington Post
Launched in May 2020, this calendar curated by the books editors at the Washington Post lists online literary events from publishers, authors, libraries, festivals, and bookstores around America.
Youth Speaks
A leading youth poetry and spoken word program. Offices in San Francisco (its home base), New York and Seattle. Organizes the annual Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam and the annual Brave New Voices National Youth Poetry Slam, and many smaller events and projects.
