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Features Bob Nelson Why AZPoetrypedia.com is important, and why you should get involved in updating it.
Features Bob Nelson Why AZPoetrypedia.com is important, and why you should get involved in updating it.
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Why AZPoetrypedia.com is important, and why you should get involved in updating it.
Friday, 03 July 2009 00:38 | Author: Anthology Webmaster | 
Why AZPoetrypedia.com is important, and why you should get involved in updating it.
AZPoetrypedia.com celebrates it’s one year anniversary on Saturday, July 4th 2009 and we cross 45,000 page views in that one year, and over 400 pages added to the index so far. But why does any of that matter? What’s the point of creating such an archive?
The site itself, simply says: “This site is sponsored by Anthology, Inc. External URL and is designed to be a resource for locating information about poets, poetry venues, and poems that are related to Arizona.”
In deciding that the site was needed, there were two things that pressed most into considerations- Education and Posterity.
In posterity, we have a tremendous opportunity to showcase Arizona’s unique place in literary history. Arizona has a rich and tremendous literary history, from the 1980’s poets that founded the Arizona State Poetry Society, to the 1990’s independent literary magazine explosion to the performance poetry of the new century, Arizona has been a cultural leader when it comes to poetry. Who remembers Lee R Ballard, who recently passed- Dale Anderson, who for many years was the calendar of the poetry community through his Carpe Diem publication? And who know the pivotal role Mary McCann had in not just bringing slam poetry to Phoenix, but in fostering the entire movement nationally. Even more recently, how many people remember Corbet Dean’s 2nd place finish at the 2002 National Poetry Slam?
These elements make up the fabric of who we are today. They are the previous path that poets and organizers followed that has led to this place, this time in our rich history. To forsake them, what they have done, and where we have been is to commit ourselves to repeat that history- to forget them means that we in turn will be forgotten, and the words we have written to be lost forever.
AZPoetrypedia is about preserving that, preserving them, so that their contributions can be celebrated and remembered by future generations of writers that are looking to make a difference. AZPoetrypedia is a statement to any writer that they can claim Arizona as their home, and in doing so can show a rich, vibrant, and deep history of poetry and writing.
In Education, AZPoetrypedia provides a powerful and effective resource of information for educators in Arizona to in turn teach the youth about the tremendous literary past- and present- and create the next generation of potential writers that can further the work that we have done today.
My personal experience has been that there are teachers that are passionate about teaching their students, and that there are teachers that are always looking for effective ways to teach poetry, expose their students to writing and motivators to help them encourage those traits in their students.
AZPoetrypedia provides for all of this. By showcasing many currently “practicing” poets, teachers have an effective roll call to draw upon to have poets come to their schools, perform workshops and teach their students. In areas such as spoken word, the vast depository of information allows teachers to talk affectively about the spoken word movement of the 1990’s, and tie it in locally, and where it was in their community. As an example, Teachers can talk about The Poe Show, and how it was founded by members of The Non-Native Transplants to become the largest single celebration of Poe’s life west of the Mississippi. Or how a small poetry slam in Mesa became one of the oldest poetry events in the country.
The bottom line, to all of this, is that history is made by those that write it, and AZPoetrypedia provides a tremendous opportunity through it’s open nature, for every genre of poet in Arizona, every group of poets, everyone that has or is writing poetry in Arizona to document their small place in a much larger picture.
Each small element provides critical pieces that come together and form the grand vista of Arizona poetry, and you have the unique opportunity to make the 45,000 or more page views that come across in the next twelve months that there is a deep, wide, and strong current of poetry in Arizona, one that has run for a long time in the past, is running deep today, and will run deep long into the future.
Happy Birthday, AZPoetrypedia.com
Bob Nelson
Executive Director
Anthology, Inc.
Sponsor of AZPoetrypedia.com
AZPoetrypedia.com celebrates it’s one year anniversary on Saturday, July 4th 2009 and we cross 45,000 page views in that one year, and over 400 pages added to the index so far. But why does any of that matter? What’s the point of creating such an archive?
The site itself, simply says: “This site is sponsored by Anthology, Inc. External URL and is designed to be a resource for locating information about poets, poetry venues, and poems that are related to Arizona.”
In deciding that the site was needed, there were two things that pressed most into considerations- Education and Posterity.
In posterity, we have a tremendous opportunity to showcase Arizona’s unique place in literary history. Arizona has a rich and tremendous literary history, from the 1980’s poets that founded the Arizona State Poetry Society, to the 1990’s independent literary magazine explosion to the performance poetry of the new century, Arizona has been a cultural leader when it comes to poetry. Who remembers Lee R Ballard, who recently passed- Dale Anderson, who for many years was the calendar of the poetry community through his Carpe Diem publication? And who know the pivotal role Mary McCann had in not just bringing slam poetry to Phoenix, but in fostering the entire movement nationally. Even more recently, how many people remember Corbet Dean’s 2nd place finish at the 2002 National Poetry Slam?
These elements make up the fabric of who we are today. They are the previous path that poets and organizers followed that has led to this place, this time in our rich history. To forsake them, what they have done, and where we have been is to commit ourselves to repeat that history- to forget them means that we in turn will be forgotten, and the words we have written to be lost forever.
AZPoetrypedia is about preserving that, preserving them, so that their contributions can be celebrated and remembered by future generations of writers that are looking to make a difference. AZPoetrypedia is a statement to any writer that they can claim Arizona as their home, and in doing so can show a rich, vibrant, and deep history of poetry and writing.
In Education, AZPoetrypedia provides a powerful and effective resource of information for educators in Arizona to in turn teach the youth about the tremendous literary past- and present- and create the next generation of potential writers that can further the work that we have done today.
My personal experience has been that there are teachers that are passionate about teaching their students, and that there are teachers that are always looking for effective ways to teach poetry, expose their students to writing and motivators to help them encourage those traits in their students.
AZPoetrypedia provides for all of this. By showcasing many currently “practicing” poets, teachers have an effective roll call to draw upon to have poets come to their schools, perform workshops and teach their students. In areas such as spoken word, the vast depository of information allows teachers to talk affectively about the spoken word movement of the 1990’s, and tie it in locally, and where it was in their community. As an example, Teachers can talk about The Poe Show, and how it was founded by members of The Non-Native Transplants to become the largest single celebration of Poe’s life west of the Mississippi. Or how a small poetry slam in Mesa became one of the oldest poetry events in the country.
The bottom line, to all of this, is that history is made by those that write it, and AZPoetrypedia provides a tremendous opportunity through it’s open nature, for every genre of poet in Arizona, every group of poets, everyone that has or is writing poetry in Arizona to document their small place in a much larger picture.
Each small element provides critical pieces that come together and form the grand vista of Arizona poetry, and you have the unique opportunity to make the 45,000 or more page views that come across in the next twelve months that there is a deep, wide, and strong current of poetry in Arizona, one that has run for a long time in the past, is running deep today, and will run deep long into the future.
Happy Birthday, AZPoetrypedia.com
Bob Nelson
Executive Director
Anthology, Inc.
Sponsor of AZPoetrypedia.com
Last Updated (Friday, 03 July 2009 01:04)
