Touch of a Poet TV
Berkeley Public Access Cable


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Richard Dixi Cohn, Touch of a Poet TV mia Stageberg, TOuch of a Poet TV Touch of a Poet TV Series featured poet Lee Gerstmann Touch of a Poet TV Series Featured Poet Diana Wang Touch of a Poet TV seies Featured poet AN Kyle Brown
1. Richard "Dixi" Cohn 2. Mia Stageberg 3. Lee Gerstmann 4. Diana Wang 5. Ann Kyle Brown
Touch of a Poet H. D. Moe Touch of a Poet Lee Williams Ishmael Reed & Tennessee Reed, Touch of the Poet TV series Touch of a Poet TV Series, Vernon Small Touch of a Poet TV Seriess, Dale Jensen
6. H. D. Moe 7. Lee Williams 8. Ishmael & Tennessee Reed 9. Vernon Small 10. Dale Jensen
Touch of a Poet TV - Berkeley Public Access Cable Featured Poets INDEX

The Touch of a Poet was an open reading series that rose out of the rich poetic traditions of Berkeley and the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1996, the basement area of the old UC Art Museum was their gathering place for these readings and performances. Formerly, the meeting place had been a basement storage room with no windows and was only big enough to seat an audience of about thirty.

Each Monday night the room would be transformed into a stage. A bamboo, bi-fold screen was positioned in a corner of the room and a brightly-colored, tie-dyed cloth was draped over it as the backdrop. When the mic was plugged in and the track lights were swung away from the walls and onto the poets, their stage was set.

It was during this first year that the Touch of the Poet readings became a Berkeley cable TV series on the city’s fledgling cable-access channel. The idea of filming a series of local poets was a very ambitious notion. The weekly two-hour recordings of a couple dozen poets were edited and shown on Channel 25. The poets were viewed on “primetime Friday nights” at 8 PM. Back then, if you were played on a local public access station like Berkeley’s, you were broadcast over and over again all days of the week.

L A Wood, founder of the website Berkeley Citizen, shot and produced the series using a 3-chip Canon camera. Editing choices were made with the idea that everyone should have an opportunity for TV exposure and not just a few well-known poets. This contributes to the great diversity seen in the programs.

Today, in a digital age where everyone owns a camera, it might be hard to imagine how unique an enterprise it was to produce a television series of over fifty programs for local broadcast. It is not surprising that the Touch of a Poet series was the first of its kind in Berkeley. The series propped up our public access facility in the first few years of its operations and promoted the possibilities of this new resource to our local community.

As might be expected, in 1996 the high-profile series also began to have a noticeable impact on Berkeley’s poetry scene. The presence of a camera and the possibility of wider exposure via local TV brought a special air to the readings. The program’s poets were linked together much like a large poetry festival. This is why the Touch of a Poet cable series has been seen as Berkeley’s first poetry festival. Clearly, the TV series contributed directly to the idea of a broader poetry venue beyond the many local “coffee-shop” readings of those days.

The 1996 Public Access Series morphed into what became the Berkeley Poetry Festival, now more than two decades old. These annual poetry festivals owe much to the Touch of a Poet cable series beyond its history. Back then, the cable productions helped influence the city’s funding of the Poetry Festivals, now linked with Berkeley City College. The first Berkeley Poetry Festival was recorded and produced in 1999 by the Touch of the Poet production crew, and of course, was broadcast on Berkeley’s Public Access channel.

Each generation has it’s own look, its own songs and unique voices. The 130 hours of archived poetry performances are a rare glimpse back to that time, sharing in the intimacy of the moment, more than a quarter of a century ago.

Berkeley Citizen


Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Touch of a Poet Halloween Night 96 touch of a Poet Clive Matson Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Tim Nuveen Touch of a Poet TV Series, Roberto Gibral-Tarik
11. Bill Dimichele 12. Halloween Night "96 13. Clive Matson 14. Tim Nuveen Special 15. Roberto Gibral-Tarik
Touch of a Poet Richard Moore Touch of a Poet, Mary Rudge Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Mark States Touch of a Poet TV Series, Judy Wells Touch of a Poet TV Series, Michael Kelly
16. Richard Moore 17. Mary Rudge 18. Mark States 19. Judy Wells - St. Pat's Day 20. Michael Kelly
Touch of a Poet TV Series, Ivan Arguelles Touch of a Poet TV Series, Jennifer Stone Touch of a Poet TV Series, Louis Cuneo Pablo Cuneo Touch of a Poet, UCB Class 43B Cal Berkeley, Instructor Ishmael Reed
21A. Ivan Arguelles 21B. Jennifer Stone 22A. Louis Cuneo 22B. Pablo Cuneo 23. UCB Class 43B Berkeley
Touch of a Poet TV Series, George Staehle Touch of a Poet TV  Series, Gail Ford Touch of a Poet TV Series, Marc Hofstadter Touch of a Poet TV Series, Maggi Meyer Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Arntson
24A. George Staehle 24B. Gail Ford 25A. Marc Hofstadter 25B. Maggi Meyer 26. Steve Arntson Special
Touch of a Poet TV Series, Noni Howard Touch of a Poet TV Series, Amy Kashiwbar Touch of a Poet TV Series, Glen Ingersol Touch of a Poet TV Series, Patricia Canterbury Touch of a Poet TV Series, Mariana Ruybalid
27. Noni Howard 28A. Amy Kashiwabar 28B. Glen Ingersoll 29. Patricia Canterbury 30A. Marianna Ruybalid
Touch of a Poet TV Series, Giovanni Moro Touch of a Poet TV Series, Tom Lynch Touch of a Poet TV Series, Vince Shorti Touch of a Poet TV Series, Tim Donnelly  
30B. Giovanni Moro 31A. Tom Lynch 31B. Vince Shorti 32a. Tim Donnelly 32B.
    Touch of a Poet TV Series, Julia Vinograd Touch of a Poet TV Series, Adam David Miller Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Walter Liggett
Bob Booker Erin Conley 33. Julia Vinograd 34. Adam David Miller 35A. Walter Liggett
Touch of a Poet TV Series, James Cagney Touch of a Poet TV Series, Touch of a Poet TV Series, Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Berkeley High Students Touch of a Poet TV Series,
35B. James Cagney 36A. Alyson Cleaver 36B. Al DeSilver 37. Berkeley High Students 38A. Barbara Michelman
Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Touch of a Poet TV Series, Catalina Carriaga Touch of a Poet TV Series, Mark Peterson Touch of a poet TV Series, Annie Armas Touch of a poet TV Series, Bob McNally
38B. Jacquelline Billingley 39A. Catalina Carriaga 39B. Mark Peterson 40A. Annie Armas 40B. Bob McNally
Touch of Poet TV Series, G.P. Skratz  & Andy Dinsmoor Touch of a Poet TV Series, Stephanie Dean Touch of a Poet TV Series, Sharon Davies Touch of a Poet TV Series, Owen Hill Touch of a Poet TV Series, Kirk Lumpkin
41. G.P. Skratz /Andy Dinsmoor 42A. Stephanie Dean 42B. Sharon Davies 43.A. Owen Hill 43B. Kirk Lumpkin
Touch of the Poet TV Series, Gloria Rodríguez Touch of a Poet TV Series, Lee Williams Touch of a Poet TV Series, Jennifer Stone Touch of a Poet TV Series, Clive Matson Special Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Ivan Arguelles
44A. Gloria Rodríguez 44B. Lee Williams 45. Jennifer Stone 46. Clive Matson 47. Ivan Arguelles
Touch of a Poet TV Series, Gail Ford & Clive Matson K. L. Hill, Touch of A Poet Touch of the Poet TV Series, Judy Wells Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Dale Jensen Randy Fingland, Touch of A Poet TV
48. Clive Matson & Gail Ford 49. K. L. Hill 50A. Judy Wells 50B. Dale Jensen 51. Randy Fingland
Touch of a Poet TV Series, Berkeley High School Touch of a Poet TV Series, Joan Gatten special Touch of a Poet TV Series, Jesse Beagle Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Jack & Adelle Foley Touch of a Poet TV Series, Hodee Edwards
52. Berkeley High Poets 53. Joan Gatten 54. Jesse Beagle 55. Jack & Adelle Foley 56. Hodee Edwards
Touch of a Poet TV Series,  Edwin Massey Jr. Touch of a Poet TV Series, Lucy Day Touch of a Poet TV Series, Terry Vanderhoff    
57. Edwin Massey Jr. 58. Lucy Day 59. Terry Vanderhoff    
 
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