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A Spoonful of Cinnamon

4/30/2013

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Great think piece by Don McIver online at New Mexico Mercury--

"When I first started producing poetry shows, this was my format:  in a two hour block, I had 5 poets read for two sets of 10 minutes each with a 15-20 minute break between.   It worked, or at least the feedback from the poets was that it worked.  As the show (dubbed “Don McIver & Friends” by the venue) progressed I kept noticing that I would lose audience at the break.   So I adjusted to a 12 minute set and an 8 minute set but people still split at the break.   For a variety of reasons, after 3 years, I switched from the above format to the traditional 2 hour Open Mike-Feature-Slam format and we kept going until the venue went out of business.  When I switched to the new format a lot of the audience left at that break too.  To be honest, not everybody left at break, but enough people left that I tinkered with the schedule.   If given a break, many of the audience would leave after about an hour.  Recently I realized that I had been asking the wrong question when I asked, “How can I hold on to them longer so they hear more poetry before leaving?”  When I should’ve been asking, “Why are they leaving after about an hour?”  . . . "

read more at: newmexicomercury.com/blog/comments/a_spoonful_of_cinnamon_poetry_is_better_in_doses

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