First Videos!

These are the first videos released by the Boxcar Voices group! I'm extremely proud of these for several reasons. For one, this group has been around over a year, and these were taken at our anniversary. Two, the people in the videos are my friends who I cherish and support in any and every way I can -- in any creative or personal endeavors. Three, now you can know what we do at our events!

Notice the lack of bongos, cigarette smoke, turtle necks, and berets. I'll be damned if you find any of those things. It's honestly just a group of normal people who get up and present their work in an open forum. It's meant to be accommodating. There's no competition and no expectation of anyone to present "great" poetry. Who wants that anyway? Give me the raw and unformed, the young and the brazen. I want creative truth at its purest with no filter or censor put there by any conception of what is told to be right. That, to me, is "great" poetry. 

Without further ado, Cara Depew.

I really like this poem by Cara because it's short, sweet, and says exactly what it needs to say to convey a sense of longing and memory. It's also open-ended. Everyone has lost a loved one at some point, so there's a tie between her and her audience, but she makes it specific to her own fond memories.

I'll take this time to say that Boxcar Voices owns no rights to these poems. The pieces are solely the author's. We only own the rights to the videos, which were all taken and edited by myself. Concerning this blog, they are merely topics for conversation (and for school work). They will be published on our website in the near future. If you take or repost this video, I doubt any legal action can be taken... just don't do it, man. It's not cool. 

So, disclaimers aside, here's James Thigpen reading one. One of James' pieces was selected for first place in poetry by Lights & Shadows art and literary magazine in 2011. This isn't that piece, but it's damn good anyway.

James once told me that he wants to write like Robert Frost. I feel like his poem is dripping with something Frost would like. This was actually James' first time reading at Boxcar Voices. Could you tell? I couldn't.

So there's a little glimpse into what Boxcar Voices is. As I said, these and more will be posted on our website. We're starting to take off, and the coming months will be an attempt to brand ourselves and get our name out there further. Let me know what you like, what you don't like, what ideas for improvement you might have, or anything else that's on your mind. 

Status pending...

So the videos are taking longer than I anticipated. I have a few of them finished, but I don't want to upload them without various permissions and what not. So here is another video that I found extremely interesting.

I've gotta say that I love this video. First off, it's Billy Collins. Second, he is employing what we're talking about in New Media, except it's a lot newer and much more professional. He is taking his poems and turning them into active visual art that illustrates the content of the poem while making statements on its own.

I have to say, some of the videos distracted me from the poems. I think this is a risk that is run when adding visual stimulus to something that's text-heavy. If the stimulus is more attractive or arresting than the words, it becomes very easy to be distracted. Other ones however, like the mouse poem, really bring it to life. I wouldn't have seen the multitude of mice worshipping the fire-starter. I thought the video really added a lot to that that made it funny and brilliant.

I really wonder if this is where poetry will need to go to some extent. I can see how people will get tired of reading poetry without having that visual stimulus. I don't feel like it will ever completely die out, but I feel like a redefinition will happen in my life time.

One Year Anniversary

So March marked one year of Boxcar Voices.

(Applause)

I have to say that we had one of the best shows we've ever had. If you missed it, guess what? We've got it on video! I'm working on the editing right now, and hopefully I'll have it up before the end of the week.

Like I said, it was one of the best shows ever. We had a lot of people read who had never read before -- some had never even been to one of our events. There was a huge variety of forms too. There were stories, poetry, drama, and even a little multimodal thing involving headphones placed on the microphone. Cool stuff.

I feel like now should be the time when I wax poetic about what I've learned over the year of running this group... and maybe I will a little bit. But I really don't want to overkill it. I'll revert back to my first post about how everyone has an inherent desire to tell stories, be them their own or another's. I think that gets repressed a lot in this day and age, or at least shrunk down to a Facebook status or a Tweet. The true act of storytelling and oration and poetry seems to be getting lost with short attention spans and societal demands.

But the fact that this has been going on a year gives me hope. Yes, I know that there are plenty of storytelling/poetry/slam groups, and that the art isn't dying as much as I describe. However, the fact that ANYTHING related to poetry can catch on in this area is very inspiring to me. Growing up here, I wouldn't think that something as dismissible as poetry would ever gain any foothold. I hope this group continues to grow and constantly keep poetry and storytelling in the general consciousness.

We'll be doing a workshop this week, along with another event. Stay posted for the videos. Some of them will be up sometime this week!