The Multimedia Revolution in Poetry, new online essay by Dave Lordan in The Stinging Fly
The good folks at The Stinging Fly have put the full text of my essay The Multimedia Revolution in Poetry online. The essay argues that, led by young and often politicised practitioners, poetry is going through a major transformation and has changed over from primarily a text only art form, to primarily a multimedia (inc performance) art form – will be of interest to all curious about the changing landscape of contemporary poetry – extract below – read the rest at link – comments welcome etc. Shares and forwards appreciated as usual.
http://www.stingingfly.org/sample/multimedia-revolution-poetry
” That state-entwined networks overseeing and regulating poetry have, aside from occasional tokenistic or face-saving gestures, set about ignoring the digital and performance revolution is perhaps the best piece of circumstantial evidence for it. For it is in the nature of revolutions that they take place outside of and in contradiction to the institutions and networks with a vested interest in the continuation of the old ways of doing things. Thus, with few exceptions, the revolution of poetry has also been a revolution of autonomy, of proving that twenty-first century poets require neither the support nor the regulation of the state, nor the patronage of vested interests within the literary world to make original and impactful work that reaches a wide audience. Digital and performance mediums have therefore offered a much needed path of independence from the neo-liberal state and state-regulated arts bureacracy to many poets.”