Poetry TV & Videos - TV tapes & videos of Touch of a Poet Series and the Berkeley Poetry Festival.html

Mother's Hen has attempted to document, with the help of L.A. Wood and Berkeley Community Media, many of the poetry events that we helped produce over the last several years. We first joined with L.A. Wood at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives when we held the Touch of a Poet Series there from 1997 to 1999. Mr. Wood videotaped most of the weekly two hour series and later edited them into 50 half hour tapes. The emphasis was placed on the Featured Readers with a certain portion of the time devoted to the Open Mike poets. These excellent tapes were shown three times a week on Berkeley's Public TV station, Channel 25.

When we later expanded to producing the Berkeley Poetry Festival, held in 1998 and 1999 at the Berkeley Art Museum, we again taped the events. Mr. Wood filmed everything, from the ongoing Open Mike in the George Gund Theater to the Special Features held at the Outdoor Sculpture Garden. The films were later edited down and shown to all of Berkeley on Berkeley's Public Access TV.

Mr. Wood's collection of the 50 Touch of a Poet tapes, each a complete program, together with 8 hours of tape on the Berkeley Poetry Festival, were donated to the UC Bancroft Library and also made available to other Public Access TV stations.

Louis Cuneo, founder and director of Mother's Hen, Touch of a Poet Series and the Berkeley Poetry Festival, continued filming the Berkeley Poetry Festival in 2000 when he collaborated with Berkeley Community Access TV and staged the 3rd Annual Berkeley Poetry Festival in their studios. The Open Mike and Poetry Slam were filmed live and broadcast to all of Berkeley. The Private Readings Studio concurrently filmed 5 hours of poets reading from their work and all three events were lated edited down and shown throughout the year on Channel 25. The tapes were donated to the Bancroft Library at UC and copies retained by the station for future use. They were also available for use by other Public Access stations.

Poets Phillip Nails from San Francisco and Randy Fingland from Berkeley operated the cameras at the *3rd Berkeley Poetry Festival*.

Mother's Hen, PO Box 695, Berkeley, CA 94701 USA
Telephone: 510 549-3345 Email: mpoole2@mindspring.com