Button Poetry is the initiative that will make you instantly fall in love with poetry, even if you don’t like literature. The initiative seeks to showcase the power and diversity of unheard voices of talented poets. They encourage these poets by broadcasting their best performances as they want to broaden poetry’s audience, and expand the reach and appreciation of this beautiful form of art.
Button Poetry was founded by Sam Cook and Sierra DeMulder in 2011. Later on, two more co-founders joined, Rachele Cermak and Heidi Lear, launching the first Button website and blog. What they basically do is produce and distribute poetry media that include videos, collaborative audio recordings, chapbooks, essays and more. Later in 2012, they expanded their platform and rebranded it by launching two more projects, Button Tumblr and Button YouTube.
They also create short videos from time to time from performances at live slam competitions. There’s a particular video out of those regional slam competitions, the Rustbelt Regional Slam, that created a huge buzz. It’s Neil Hilborn’s performance of “OCD” which is one of the most-viewed slam performances (watch above) in history. The viral video is still viewed since it was first published in 2013 until this day.