You wouldn’t need a Hollywood-quality camera. Although something better than a cell phone would be nice. The main thing is it should have reasonably good sound quality. The viewers will be listening as much as watching, if not more. You would also need a small, cheap tripod, one you can set on a table. Point the camera at the poet, push the button and let it go. After the event, the video would go to YouTube.
Easy stuff, and fun to do. And if you take this on, you don’t have to feel trapped into doing it every single month. If we miss one here and there, so be it. Videos are just an add-on feature to the open mic.
But a good one. Videos can make up for a lot of the problems caused when poems are presented orally at a reading. They allow people to go over a poem more than once to help them appreciate it, which they could do if reading it in a book. And they give people the opportunity to watch once again a particular poem that they loved when they heard it at the reading.
This would be a volunteer position, but of course it wouldn’t hurt a resume. There are side benefits as well, like possibly meeting some interesting people, getting more involved in the local poetry scene, and, if you would like, joining our organizing committee (not a very difficult job), and having your own blog on our well-read website.
Anyone interested in doing this can contact Stan at burfield@live.com