Michael Rothenberg (Photo by Christopher Chung.)
What happens when the ancient art of poetry ventures out on the Internet? Verse goes viral.
About six months ago, Michael Rothenberg, 60, a poet and web site editor who lives in a cabin on a wooded hillside at the edge of Guerneville, had a idea.
He wanted to use the Web to instigate a loose aggregation of poetry readings all over the world, all devoted to fostering peace and protecting the planet.
At random, he set the date as Saturday, Sept. 24, and he called this global, virtual gathering “100 Thousand Poets for Change.”
“I created an event page on Facebook. I had 4,000 friends on Facebook,” Rothenberg said. “I started getting answers back right away.”
The numbers have grown dramatically, with 700 events now scheduled in 550 cities in 95 countries. Many are new events and some are readings added to existing festivals.
Rothenberg got the 100,000 number the same way he got the Sept. 24 date — he picked it out of the air.
“There probably are easily a 100,000 poets in the United States. Then we found Internet article that somehow concluded that there are 6 million poets in world. They’re out there,” he said.
“We created a framework. Each local group can develop its own local event based on its own local issues. Beyond that, some people may never even let me know they did it,” Rothenberg said.
“I’m not speaking for other people in Madison or Cairo or Tel Aviv. I’m speaking for myself,” he added. “We have a common goal. I’m not the elected head of this organization. It’s inclusive and decentralized. And I think that is its beauty.”
For a local taste of this global event, attend Northern California poet Francisco X. Alarcon’s 12:30 p.m. reading at Saturday’s free Sonoma County Book Festival, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square.
For more information on “100 Thousand Poets for Change”:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106999432715571
http://www.bigbridge.org/100thousandpoetsforchange
For more on the Sonoma County Book Festival: socobookfest.org.
