Step 1: Find a digital work you admire
I chose to analyze a slam poem called Shrinking Woman performed by Lily Myers uploaded to YouTube (https://youtu.be/zQucWXWXp3k ). I chose to share/analyze this poem because it harmonizes with the platform I want to create. Button Poetry has a mission to elevate the voices and diversity of their community through the art of poetry. I think YouTube is the best platform for this community to expand their audience and share the experiences of these individuals in a creative way that most of us can connect or sympathize with.
Step 2: Analyze the text
Genius.com provided a transcript of the poem above (https://genius.com/Lily-myers-shrinking-women-annotated). I think slam poetry is best absorbed when you are watching it but, it’s also nice to read the poem after watching the performance too because you get to pick apart the writings of the artist.
Although YouTube has advertisements, the Button Poetry channel does not allow advertisements on the actual videos. This makes it very easy to binge the content on their channel because you are not steered away by advertisements interrupting the watching experience. In the description of most videos, they have a way for you to become a member of the channel for $4.99 a month to discover more videos, live videos, member-only posts, early access to videos, pick the videos they upload, member-only videos, and more. I think this is their alternative to fund the content on the channel without having advertisements.
The authors are recognized instantly on the title of the video. Button Poetry has their own website (https://buttonpoetry.com/) and authors can be published through one of their many contests. By subscribing to their newsletter or following their social media account you can get more information about the contests and when they are occurring.
Step 3: Explore possible platforms of your work
I explored a few different platforms to publish my work currently, I am still deciding. I really like the idea of utilizing WordPress using Elementor but I think my internet is terrible at home or the file is too large because it took me more than three hours of installing and still, I was not able to apply the template I wanted.
Then, I tried WordPress using Gutenberg, but the templates are so simple and lacked to apply the ideas I was envisioning for my platform. I will continue to edit my platform until it looks the way I want it to.
Step 4: Publish a piece of your own writing on the platform
After posting my piece onto WordPress using Gutenberg, I soon learned that the short piece I envisioned turned into a three-page paper. I know that most of my peers are not huge readers, so I want to condense the piece I wrote into something that is easier to digest than a long paper. I was thinking about making a table that compares Black Feminism vs. White Feminism including my ideas from the paper and if readers want to read more than I can link them to my paper. I would rather the first thing people see are the shortened versions of my papers, so they are not overwhelmed by the lengthy content and it’s like a teaser to the actual paper.
Step 5: Analyze the publication experience on the platform
Authors and viewers can interact with the author and each other via the comment section beneath the video. YouTube allows creators to make a community page and if viewers join the community, they are given the opportunity to members only live videos where I believe they can talk to other members within the Button Poetry community.
The artists that are presented on the YouTube channel are just performing their piece, I do not believe that they can make decisions for the YouTube channel. However, the YouTube channel allows creators to make their work easily findable on social media.
