Moving Words 2020

My poem Gospel Bay Waters is now a short animated film!

In 2019-2020 I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in Moving Words, an international collaboration program by Arts by the People that connects writers, animators, and voice actors.

View Gospel Bay Waters.

The full list of Moving Words 2020 films can be found here.

Long gone are the colors of soft blushes and ripe sunburns

Gospel Bay Waters, Moving Words 2020

So, how did this all happen?

In Spring 2020, I was notified that my poem was selected to be a part of Moving Words 2020. Two meetings were held in October/November. All of the selected poets, guided by our wonderful writing coordinator David Crews, got together, gave feedback and workshopped the poems to prep them for animation. For some, that meant trimming down the work so that it could be read in under two minutes. For others, it meant removing abstractions (which are harder to animate) and boosting imagery.

Next, the voice recordings had to be made. We had the opportunity to either record our own poems or get a voice actor to voice them for us. So, yes, that is my voice you’re hearing.

Once the final versions of the poems were voiced, then, in January 2020, the poems went to various animation schools around the world and the movie magic began. Fun fact, it can take over two months to create one minute of animation. Writers were available to animators for questions any questions, but my animators were perfectly happy to take “Gospel Bay Waters” and run with it.

In August 2020, the virtual launch party was scheduled. All of us would be seeing the films for the first time. I must admit, I was a little nervous to see how it would turn out. But I LOVED the finished product. Seeing “Gospel Bay Waters” come to life, woven with its own mood, colors, and visual narrative was an amazing experience and I’m so grateful to Arts by the People for letting me be a part of it.