Every Few Years, I End Up Rediscovering Livestreaming
2010
It is the spring semester of freshman year. I am not officially a member of WU-SLam’s Performance Crew, but I have attended all of their events in the fall semester and they like me enough that when I ask to volunteer for their Grand Slam they task me with making sure the livestream functions on a whim.
Now, the funny thing is that the only reason they are livestreaming the Grand Slam is because the girlfriend of one of the poets is sick.
But it is from this single event that I gain just enough knowledge of livestreams function and will periodically use these fundamentals.
2012/2013
Over the next few years, WU-SLam uses a variety of platforms to livestream our Grand Slams. I’m not sure if any of the shows are still out there in the either, but I do remember famously having George Watsky on our stage the week he went viral. That was pretty cool.
At this point, we technically hold a some sort of record for most viewed poetry slam livestream by technicality. But the main thing about 2012 is that I meet Sam Cook at the end of 2012. Sam Cook is the founder of Button Poetry, and I imagine to impress him with my poems and my willingness to delve into the world of technology. I let him know that if he ever wants to try livestreaming, I’ll work with him.
Of course he takes me up on this offer years later.
2016/2017
Now at this point, I am six years into the livestreaming game that I have mostly done with webcams and laptops. I have just enough knowledge about the mechanics, that when asked to solve how to livestream with actual cameras, I manage to fumble my way through online documentation and then manage to sit behind the tech deck and manage to launch the First Livestream of Button Poetry Live.
https://www.youtube.com/live/-UbQZI5mw4Q?si=nRU4IhJifDDrchvI
At this point in time, I was also gearing up in my Masters of Science of Education at Purdue, and because when your mind is on something, your mind tends to be on something, I leverage my livestreaming expertise into a final project that still sits on my website as evidence. It is also inevitably out of date and a little too specific.
2020
I eventually fall out of the slam poetry scene having pivoted to journalism and nonfiction. And part of that is due to the fact that I’m working with Black Nerd Problems as their Asian American correspondent (a title I gave myself, but I stand by it).
At this point, you can imagine what comes next. The pandemic happens and I figure streaming a Saturday Game Night is a way to bring people together, so I know learn how to do livestreaming via Twitch thanks to some prior experience with Intelligame and again, a copious amount of online documentation, I help kick start that again this time with StreamLabs.
Saturday Game Night lasts a few years before eventually fading to the world shifting yet again.
2025
The world shifting also means that I get involved with yet another organization, SLICE (the St. Louis Independent Comics Expo). And this year, I have joined the board and offered my knowledge of YouTube and StreamLabs and manage to fumble my way through it yet again.
Depending on how things fall, this may technically be a sneak peak into things to come this year, but somehow because a cold in 2010, I end up rediscovering livestreaming.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Zd_5UV85dJc?feature=shared