Vision

Why Create Such a Festival ?

– Because we had a problem in our midst.
– Because we believed that there should be a solution to this problem.
– Because we naively believed that we could resolve it.

First obstacle : To identify and clearly outline the problem for ourselves, but mostly for others. We knew it would no doubt be asked of us in all applications for funding— if we ever got to that stage of the game.

Second obstacle : Determining a solution that made sense, given the issues.
Getting outside advice from others, including the public we hoped to entice.
Writing up the proposal.

And the Obstacles Mount...

• How to sell poetry to the municipal council?
  
• How to sell poetry to a public that never reads it, never finds it in a bookstore, never sees a poet on television or in newspapers and magazines?
  
• How to find and purchase books by poets who are virtually invisible? Nobody buys what he cannot see.
  
• How to explain the importance of poetry to a bookseller who doesn’t read it himself?
  
• How to sell poetry to media types who don’t understand it, and whose primary purpose is to serve a public that also doesn’t read it?
  
• How to sell our idea to the poets themselves?
  
• How to generate the interest of sponsors?
  
• How to generate the financial support required to pull off an event celebrating a literary genre that is generally misunderstood and under-appreciated?
  
• How to respond to all the preconceived ideas about poets and poetry, in general?
  
• How to sell a national or international event that does not take place in Montreal?
  
• How to convince journalists that this event is more than just a local event, despite its taking place in a town outside Montreal?
  
• How to turn a small town into the “Poetry Capital of the World”?
  
• How to package poetry for a public that despised poetry in school?
  
• How to convince all the aforementioned people that we are right, and that they simply don’t yet “see it”?
  
• How not to become discouraged over these obstacles and deeply rooted prejudices among people we are trying to persuade to come on board?
  
• The task would be monumental—the major problem to overcome being one of communication, and on several levels. We knew these things:
  • The poet in the spotlight has certain (sometimes mistaken) expectations of an audience: that people are willing to listen to him read for as long as the spirit moves him.
  • An audience can take poetry in short, palatable spurts. People quickly lose interest if they don’t feel emotionally “connected” to the work.
  • The public has an averson to school campuses and classrooms, which tend to remind them of their negative school experiences with poetry.
    

Toward a Solution :

• Offer poetry readings in places and spaces that have public appeal
  
• Choose different venues to accommodate different target audiences
  
• Put time limits on poetry readings so as not to inconvenience those in attendance who are there not for poetry but for conversation
  
• Determine a reasonable balance between “silent time” (while poets give their readings) and “conversation time” (when the public can resume their table-talk)
  
• Find ways and means of “selling” poetry that are in keeping with the particular economic and cultural realities of the various “partners.” City bureaucrats, for example, will be sold on the idea of enticing tourists; bars and restaurants will want to generate revenue; poets need to be made aware that they have the power to reel in an audience that doesn’t typically read poetry
  
• Convince the media that it has a responsibility to promote not only poetry but a large-scale event that will, no doubt, attract world-wide attention and enhance the cultural life of an entire region.