Transmedia Environmental Poetry in the Pacific: Between Literature and the New Media

Poetry is a major artistic expression in the Pacific, due to a longstanding tradition of indigenous oral literature. In the present climate emergency, “poet-performers” or “spoken word artists” have risen in this geographic area as militant figures that compose poetry and act it out on websites, in videos, during public performances and in important political venues. Pacific poets trespass the boundaries of a single medium and genre, mixing narratives, poetry, music, acting, photographs, videos, and paintings. They have created a transmedia form of art, in which integrated elements of a narrative are dispersed through different channels to create a unified experience. Spoken word artists make use of the potential offered by new technologies and the web to form a participatory environment, which can give visibility to people who need to have their voices heard. My contribution will analyze a selection of Pacific performance poems from an aesthetic, literary, and environmental point of view, showing their transmedia nature.