Two poems from each featured reader and one from each open mic reader will be displayed on a special video page on our website, where they will be available for all to see indefinitely. They will act as a more immediate record of each event than did last season’s picture gallery, and will also serve as an archive for interested parties years down the road.
Those who were excited by a particular poem at the event but didn't catch all the words will be able to watch it any number of times if it was one of those videotaped.
If anyone does not want their video open to the public, they only need to speak up and we will keep it as a non-viewable archive only. If they don't want to be videotaped at all, we won't.
A reader, Deb Hill of The Ontario Poetry Society, has brought up questions that we must deal with before September 4th. For instance, "how this might cause concerns for copyrighted material or even material that is not published yet! If a poet reads new work would the video posting be labeled as published work and no longer be available for submitting elsewhere. Also, if someone reads from a book and that work is recorded, does permission need to be granted from the publisher?" So there will definitely be another posting on this subject.
Master photographer Erik Martinez Richards will be the videographer. His former job as the photographer will be taken over by Kevin Heslop, who will also write the summary of each event. It should be an interesting season.