Mother's Hen has attempted to document, with the help of L A Wood and the Berkeley Community Media, many of the poetry events that we produced over the last several years.
When we expanded to producing the Berkeley Poetry Festival, held in 1998 and 1999 at the Berkeley Art Museum, we again taped the events. LA Wood filmed everything — from the ongoing Open Mic in the George Gund Theater to the Special Features held at the Outdoor Sculpture Garden. The films were later edited down and shown to all of Berkeley on Berkeley's Public Access TV.
Berkeley Citizen's collection of the 50 Touch of a Poet Series each a complete program, together with 8 hours of tape on the first two Berkeley Poetry Festivals, were donated to the UC Bancroft Library and also made available to other Public Access TV stations.
Louis Cuneo, founder and director of Mother's Hen, Touch of a Poet Series and the Berkeley Poetry Festival, continued filming the Berkeley Poetry Festival in 2000 when he collaborated with Berkeley Community Access TV and staged the 3rd Annual Berkeley Poetry Festival in their studios.
The Open Mic and Poetry Slam were filmed live and broadcast to all of Berkeley. The Private Readings Studio concurrently filmed 5 hours of poets reading from their work and all three events were later edited down and shown throughout the year on Channel 28. The tapes were donated to the Bancroft Library at UC and copies retained by the station for future use. They were also available for use by other Public Access stations.
The 5th Berkeley Poetry Festival (2004) was videotaped by Berkeley Citizen'sowner, L A Wood. The first two hour video or dvd is of the Open Mic and the presentation of the City of Berkeley's Lifetime Achievement Award to Julia Vinograd. The second two hour video or dvd is of the Poetry Slam and Youth Speaks.


