Shining a Light on Poets with DMV Renaissance Awards
The movies have the Oscars. Music has the Grammys. Poetry? We now have the DMV Renaissance Awards.
This platform, created by Crystal Lyn and GradaLove, celebrates the local culture contributors and places the DMV community’s artists in the spotlight.
Summer 2021 will be the first annual awards show. While 2020 was gearing up to be the first annual show — the venue was set, marketing meetings in motion, contracts signed, decor planned — COVID-19 became the blessing in disguise Crystal and GradaLove needed.
With the quality over quantity mindset, DMV Renaissance Awards shifted to Instagram in 2020 and began a virtual open mic. They started at zero followers and organically grew to 600 by April 2021.
There’s something to say about organic growth.
With no paid promotions, they say “a lot of [their] people aren’t from the DMV, which made [their international] audience happen sooner than expected.”
What does a poetry awards show look like?
Unlike the Oscars or Grammys, the DMV Renaissance Awards are selected by the people. Nominations opened in April 2021, and it’s based purely on nominations.
The poets with the most nominations will win the category. Simple as that!
What are the categories, you ask? For this first year, there are 11 categories:
Best female poet
Best male poet
DMV’s favorite host
Female Poet OG of the year
Male Poet OG of the year
DMV’s favorite author
Most entertaining poet
Poet emcee of the year
DMV’s favorite erotic poet
DMV’s favorite Slam Poetry Champion
Haikuist of the year
Keep tuned into the DMV Renaissance Awards to learn who the winners of the 2021 awards are!
But what does it take to put this on?
10 things to know about creating a poetry awards show
There’s a lot that goes into the DMV Renaissance Awards, and we could write a book on it. But we’ll give you the digestible version:
Remember your “why.”
It’s a community effort.
Admit to yourself that you don’t always know what you’re doing.
Reach out to people to learn from them.
There are always sacrifices.
It’s going to take money for things like monthly bills and resources.
If you think you’ll make quick money, you’re going to be disappointed.
It takes humility to do something in service.
You’re not always going to get back your money or your time, but you will see the fruits of your labor.
It takes all the things you’ve heard from everyone else too: consistency, having a website, posting on social media, etc.
Great! You’ve got these things down and can get started. But you may now be wondering: What more can a poetry awards show do?
Plenty!
For Crystal and GradaLove, they see a tour of the DMV Renaissance Awards with the winners. They see a bigger audience for DMV poets. They see an international platform.
There’s a lot of room for growth and opportunity for an awards show, if you can picture it.
Think creatively, and you might just provide quite the platform for your own local poets who deserve the visibility.
We’ll leave you with this final thought from GradaLove:
“It’s a lot of work, and sometimes you feel like you’re at a scarcity of resources. But I want everyone to know you have all you need, so just be. Show up as yourself authentically and make it happen the way you want to. That’s all you need.”
Be sure to watch or listen to the full episode for even more detail behind the DMV Renaissance Awards, Crystal Lyn, and GradaLove!
The DMV Renaissance Awards was created by poets in the D.C. metropolitan area, also known as the DMV area, in February 2020 to celebrate local poets. Due to the global pandemic, we postponed the inaugural awards show to the summer of 2021. We have since cultivated a national community of poets, thanks to Instagram, by hosting monthly virtual open mic nights. Through the DMV Renaissance Awards, we aim to celebrate our local culture contributors and place our community’s artists in the spotlight. During the summer of 2021, the DMV’s selected artists will be awarded for their talents and contributions at our first annual DMV Renaissance Awards Show.
