The U.S. Department of Labor reports that 48 percent of people get jobs through referrals or personal contacts. So finding a career by knowing the right person is the single most effective way to excel in any market. Students with a passion for writing often put their dreams on hold as they use their skills in other career fields.
Thewriternetwork.com is a tool utilizing the latest social-networking model that aims to speed up the networking process for a writer. Host and founder of the Déjà vu Poetry Lounge, Gregg “Reality” Delaney, is eager to get students plugged into the highly tool.
This website is the product of years of experience from Reality who has worked tirelessly to bringing a new style of poetry to Denver since 2000.
Reality fell into the poetry scene in 1994 after legal troubles pushed him away from the streets.
“People at the time were very into the afro-centric, eclectic, empowerment poetry,” Real said about the local poetry scene in the 1990s.
“I came in talking about my life, baby momma’s and drama other stuff I had already been writing I just didn’t know it was poetry,” Real added. The bar crowd at the Mocha Longue responded to the style of poetry and grew instantly and in less than six months Real had to move the poetry event to a bigger place.
The poetry scene didn’t immediately take to Real’s merging kind of events, “they kind of looked at us different because we were at bars and night clubs, instead of the coffee shops and hipster joints,” Delaney said. By adding a DJ and an after party, Reality was able to successfully combine both the nightlife and the poetry scene.
2002 until 2007 Reality’s weekly poetry event at the Kasbah known as “The Lounge,” was the largest by attendance in the country and began to draw in poets from all over the nation.
“It really drew the crowds out, Poets coming to Denver were pleasantly shocked at the quality of the venue we were at,” Reality said.
“Many of these places in the East Coast have poetry in their nightly music shows…Real has influenced the scene to bring that flavor to Denver,” Lee Williams said.
Williams was a great success from 1989-92 throughout the east coast and brought helped to bring the “Def Comedy Jam v. Comic View” battle out to Denver in 2008.
After a successful run from 2005-2008, amidst financial, and creative differences Reality Left the Kasbah.
Away from the scene Reality connected with All Access Live a high quality a media production company. Since Real already had built a name for his self nationally and was comfortable hosting events and All Access had Real hosting all types of productions.
“When I quit the poetry scene, I promised myself I would only come back to it if everything was right,” Reality shared. This time he felt like he had all the tools to return to the scene.
“When I met All Access and started to be involved in what they were doing I knew something was calling me back… I just told myself this time I am going to do it on my terms with all the technology behind me.”
An opportunity materialized and Real brought his show back to the Denver audience this time with a whole team of professionals with him who he hopes will help him to experience a Déjà vu of success he has previously reached.
All of Real’s successes have built him many relationships and eyes of the media professionals are on him because of it.
“The poetry scene is a huge tool literary students can use to show their skills and meet great people,” Lee Williams added about the importance of the site for students.
Thewriternetwork.com allows all the writers, poets, and interested people access to a network of people on a very specific level. This should allow writers of all types to maximize opportunities and build relationships that can propel them into their careers.
Real visualizes connecting thewriternetwork.com with the academic community and hopes to find a way to have students integrated to the system as part of certain department’s curriculum soon.
Students can catch the poets of the Déjà vu Poetry Lounge at Twisted Olive in the Northfield Shopping area every Wednesday from 9-11 pm or log onto http://www.thewriternetwork.com/ for more info.
No comments:
Post a Comment