Also available as audio-only on iTunes, Spotify & wherever else you get podcasts.
How does poetry evolve with social media? Guest poet Olivia Ku brings her special blend of micro-poetry and big feels to ‘Threads and Lines’ as they break down Instagram poetry and it’s potential. The Clique reviews a Lucille Clifton classic short poem, and have a constructive roasting session on IG micro poetry during the ‘2 Piece Combo’ poetry review. Lastly, Olivia goes deep into short poetry flex during the “Five For Your Eye” prompted poem.
[EPISODE INDEX]
- 1:04 – “Heartbreak” by Olivia Ku
- 2:13 – “Threads & Lines”
- 13:58 – 2 Piece Combo | “Homage To Hips” – Lucille Clifton
- 22:18 – 2 Piece Combo | @TheBloodOfDesire
- 34:58 – 5 For Your Eye
The potential of poetry has always been something I’ve wondered about. The first concept for a poetry show started in my head while watching Def Poetry circa ‘06. I remember thinking then that there should be more of this, and more depth to it. I went searching for answers on the Internet, and it brought new possibilities I never expected. Since then, a poetry podcast is something I’ve always dreamt of; so when I met Kuya David, who had a similar dream, we set out to produce The Pen Clique. The podcast is our shared vision since to create a more in-depth and engaging poetry experience for the Internet. However, with more and more poetry content on Instagram, we realized we needed to find someone who was doing dope things online and Olivia Ku is the first Pen Clique example of all that. She’s a poet who is effectively using the Internet as a means of publication and outreach.
Personally, poetry has always been about empowerment and change, and Olivia is using her art on new platforms to affect that change in people’s hearts and minds. Poetry is a healing art and Olivia keeps that sense of shelter in all of her work. That is a big reason I was happy to see her on the show; she is helping people with her art. There is always a time and place for the big and boisterous parts of poetry, but I think the cathartic, well-versed purges of struggle and feeling hold the most value. Olivia does that in a whole new way as she is mainly an Instagram poet, meaning most of her work is made to be shared with online followers. This brings a new challenge to poets; how does one make short, easily-digestible poems? What images do you pair with your poems? Then there is always the tricky game of Instagram algorithms and hashtags. Olivia is tackling all of those issues in fun creative ways while still retaining the mission of healing and peace in her art.
When Olivia arrived for her shoot I was excited to see how it would all work out, to say the least. The short nature of Olivia’s work and her talent as a writer makes her poetry easy to understand yet rich with possible interpretations. How would the Clique react, when faced with such few words and so many possible meanings? Olivia made it easy for us by revealing the raw inside scoop on her poem, as well as her writing process. As a guest, she let us into her struggle and trauma, and gave emerging micro poets some important tips to keep their work growing. The episode rolled along smoothly and Olivia’s consistently sweet nature brought all her loving vibes into the Pen Clique, as it does for thousands online. That is the dopest part of Olivia to me; she is proof that all the things I grew up loving about poetry and the scene will not be hindered by the Internet, but can grow and possibly reach and inspire a world full of people.
Olivia is officially our first Instagram poet, and we are thrilled to welcome her to the Clique. The potential for online poetry is something I think we all should be exploring in our work as writers. We have this new means to reach the world, and I do believe when you expose people to art, you are saving lives. To think Olivia is sharing the same sense of the love we all get from poetry with thousands via Instagram stories and posts is something uniquely beautiful. Where poetry can go online from here is infinite. We are excited to dive in deeper and share it with all of you.
Write-up by Daniel Hees
Edited by Seraphina Lotkhamnga
Photos by Aubrey Rowe
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Pen Clique Presents: Word Spoken
We wrapped season 2 but stay tuned as we will be bringing y’all new interesting poetry content in the off season. First up is a swapcast from across the pond, “Word Spoken;” a poetry show hosted by Pen Clique fam Henry Betwick, featuring the best new poets in the UK scene. Henry dives into the stories and experiences behind his guests’ poems and presents it all with the high quality treatment we think poetry deserves. We love this show because of their captivating coverage of spoken word and we’re excited to put our listeners on to more exciting poetry content from the online poetry community. Subscribe to Word Spoken on YouTube and all podcast platforms, and stay tuned as we drop even more poppin poetry content throughout our off season.
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Word Spoken Presents: The Pen Clique Season 2 Mixtape
REEEMIX! The good homies across the pond Word Spoken podcast, whom we featured in our last off-season episode, now returns the favor with a Pen Clique SEASON 2 MIXTAPE! This episode features dope moments throughout season 2 that hit you in that special Pen Clique way.
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Episode 04 Ft. Shelley Bruce
Artist Shelley Bruce throws poetry THIRST TRAPS during “Threads and Lines”; The Clique drops a perfect slam score during the “2 Piece Combo” and Shelley humbles the whole block during the “Five for Ya Eye”.
