Haiku Video Art Project: Pass It On

On this past Tuesday, April 17th, the Haiku Foundation announced a fundraising campaign to help launch a new Video Archive project. The basic idea behind the project, as explained to me by Eve Luckring, a formidable haiku poet and video photographer, is to create an archive of interviews with haiku poets, along with videos of the poets reading their work. The fundraising aspect is for audio equipment and, I imagine, to pay for the time of those involved in the creation, coordination, and general assembly of the project (Note: Turns out I imagined incorrectly - Eve lets us know in a comment below that all the money is going for the equipment, with just a small amount for travel). Eve mentioned she would like to begin with the elder statespersons in the haiku field to make sure to preserve some 'living' record of their work and who they are.

It seems like a most laudable project, so I agreed to pass the word.  I'd love to be able to dip into a video archive and see and hear renowned poets perform their work and share their thoughts and feelings. Though haiku has a long tradition in the East, in English it barely spans 125 years. We have lost some of the 1st and 2nd generation poets to the possibility of such a project; to record those still living is the kind of 'ambition' I admire in a project of this sort.  In addition to poets, translators and scholars would also be part of this ambitious recorded archive.

It is easy to imagine how a burgeoning poet, student, or seeker might be caught up in the spirit of haiku, the Way of haiku, via the recorded word and image.

The project launched at IndieGoGo on April 17th, as mentioned above. Since, as they say a picture is worth a thousand clichés (or, in this case, a series of pictures), here's a little something from Eve:







As stated by Jim Kacian in the brief video above, the idea is a simple one: let's preserve the voices and history of first generation haiku poets who are still with us, and then others as time goes on.  For more information, click through and see for yourself if this is something worth supporting.

It seems to me that a project of this type is a step toward wisdom culture that is of so much importance in the world.  The idea is elegant in it's simplicity:

Pass it on.

my province--
even the smoke
an ancient thing  

     Issa 
     translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

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