Reaching a broader audience is the driving force behind all three poetry videos. I want to bring poetry out to where the eyes and ears are. Video is another tool for my expression. While Holman believes that videos will probably become an important part of our literary culture, he feels that problems exist when combining poetry with another medium. Holman also thinks videos will give poets a way to break into popular culture.
Poetry is the only art form left to be discovered on a popular level.
Now the hottest trend in music in New York City, rap began when local disc jockeys started introducing each song with a highly rhythmic voice-over that melded with the music, and this became rap. Waldman found the process of translating her poem into a video both time-consuming and occasionally difficult. We spent hours in the studio choreographing the various images I would eventually use, such as the lions outside the New York Public Library and the statue of the Buddha. What I had to do was to take the poem and break it down word by word into fine increments of time. The video takes us into the dark chambers of the Ellis Island receiving station, where Ginsberg, dressed in a dark blue suit, encounters the white-costumed actors, who represent the ghosts of his ancestors.