great er cleveland poetry take two

if Cleveland

wants to pull together for an area-wide poetry festival (i am a fan of the name Dick Goddard suggested, “Lake Effect”), here is an unhoned vision of how it could go.

two days, probably a Saturday and Sunday, preferable when warm outside.

schedule readings all over the place: bookstores, parks, libraries, taverns. some of the readings would have bands behind the poets. some could be round robin, or as the Bukowski hosted by Suzanne of Mac’s this October went: a poet reads from where they are, when the poet before them finishes. essentially, we would need several people to volunteer to host or MC an event. that volunteer chooses a venue, and works out a time with that venue. Then, rather than choosing familiar poets, the bill for each venue can be chosen not so much at random, but with an eye to diversity.

i.e. so at CSU it would not be all CSU poets, but a couple CSUs and say, a Lit Cafe goer, with a Sandusky poet. this way poets meet poets they may not have brushed arms with, you get the gist.

these hosts would then give their time slot to me, and i would put it on the “official” schedule. as slots are filled, the remaining hosts would need to work around that schedule.

i propose having TOO MANY readings for anyone to feasibly attend all of them. and to have them in SEVERAL areas of town. imagine too much poesy! i think we can count on the likes of John Burroughs and Jim Lang to take candid shots and write up the events they make it to, so we all get a gist of what we missed.

i volunteer to coordinate with the hosts/MCs, create the weekend schedule, write a press release and get it to the appropriate people in the media. i can also craft a flyer and delegate folks to get a copy to various libraries, coffee shops and bookstores.

think about it---i can list several “schools” of poetry to feature, but cannot think of all of them. there is the Cleveland Poetry Scenes book to promote, along with the new Peace Poems book by Bottom Dog, in which are several local poets. Cleveland Black Poetics puts on a moving show. a haiku—a “true haiku” reading certainly is in order! there’s Deep Cleveland Poets, JCU poets, CSU poets. someone could have a walking reading through University Circle, stopping at the various Hart Crane memorials. i have my …uncouth and yet so full of sweet irony class clown poets in my ‘independent’ arena. there are hipsters, and old schools, natures and slammers and hip hops. but it would be up to each poet to get themselves and the poets they commune with on-board so this can be as all-inclusive as possible.

Ok, so, who doesn’t like Lake Effect? (i do i do i do)