Poetry Club: Online, Inclusive and Extracurricular

In 2021, I established an online Poetry Club for students at University of the Arts London (UAL).

Originally, my reasons for putting it online rather than in a physical space were largely practical, owing to the ongoing pandemic restrictions. However, to my delight, I found that the online environment provided excellent opportunities for generating a warm and inclusive community spirit. Previous experience suggests this would have been far less successful in a physical setting, in which awkwardness, self-consciousness and a sense of vulnerability can ensue when a group of total strangers are placed together. Indeed, this prospect might deter some from venturing into a physical club space at all. An online club, to a large extent, frees students from the tyranny of automatic visibility and performative pressure – as well as the practical tyrannies of location and time. Its potential to empower -especially for those who are nervous or reticent, or trying an activity they have never experienced before- is therefore enormous.

An unexpected aspect of the Poetry Club was that many of the student members had, it turned out, been writing poetry for years – but had never before given a public recitation. The online environment gave them the confidence to do so, for the first time ever. I believe this is much to do with the freedom it offers to be the focus of attention or to conceal oneself in the shadows. In a heartbeat, one can switch between visibility or invisibility, audibility or inaudibility, presence or absence.

Two elements are worthy of exploration here. Firstly, in an online gathering, we are simultaneously in the virtual “room” with the other participants – and elsewhere. This gives the sense of a safety net: one can drift freely between the real and virtual environment without feeling trapped in a social setting that might become uncomfortable, yet difficult to escape. The effect of this safety net can be highly liberating, especially for those who might suffer from anxiety-related disorders. Secondly, the online setting allows one to have more control over their specific actions. Responses to other students’ recitations, for example, do not have to be said aloud and instantaneously: they can be quietly put into the chat box, once the writer has had time to formulate a response and is ready to post.

Extracurricular clubs for students, when run online, can be socially enriching and confidence-boosting. They create a uniquely relaxed and unpressurised setting for members to share their creativity and respond to one another’s work. Their responses can be intellectual, playful, thought-provoking, mutually supportive … sometimes all of these things simultaneously. The organising of such clubs requires care and sensitivity, enthusiasm and imagination. The Poetry Club at my institution is an example of how a purely online forum can create a flexible, safe space in which participants can be as visible or as anonymous as they wish, at any given time.

An earlier version of this presentation was delivered at UAL ExEd 2022, under the title 'Extracurricular Enrichment: The Many-Languages Poetry Club'. The abstract can be viewed at https://educationconference.arts.ac.uk/archive/2022/session/111.html