Hi. If you think this guide was worth it please share it with your people and if you think it was a worth a cup of coffee consider supporting the mission my Venmo & PayPal are @damianrucci or check out my Kofi
Good to see you. I’m not sure what brought you to this point whether your band broke up, your job fired you, your girlfriend left or maybe, just maybe you got that hunger in your belly— your tired of stomping around your local scene and looking to grab a fistful of America, looking to wet your head with the midnight dew and bebop from city to city with poems in hand. I’ve been at this a while and over the last nine years I’ve been on the road pretty consistently as well as aiding with the booking and touring of poets around the country, We’re in a strange new time—there are more poets bouncing around now than ever but even then I truly wonder how many of us there are crushing asphalt, flipping chapbooks, and haunting the tired roadways. Maybe this essay can help illuminate the path for others.
The road aint easy but this is how my friends and I have learned to do it. Unlike the old guard who hoarded their connections and clout only breaking pieces off to the most dedicated of those old poetry boys clubs— that shit’s for the dinosaurs. It’s a new age.
So Poets Really Go on Tour? Lol How?
Poets have been marching their words out of their hometowns for a millennia but somehow it has fallen out of the zeitgeist that this is still happening— I’m telling you, tell anyone you’re on a poetry tour and you’re bound to catch some skeptical looks. I’ll tell you one thing if a cop pulls you over DO NOT TELL THEM YOU ARE ON A POETRY TOUR. Been there done that. Anyway, poets have been poeting for sometime but I’m not writing this essay for the academic poets who have their own built in systems for touring or those deep in the Slam world (though as a poet if you’re clever enough you can tap into those avenues) this is for the hardcore poets. The ones without any financial backing, the modern day bluesmen who have a fire in their belly and words in their heads— who are mad enough to take off of bounce around reading poems to strangers and grabbing a fistful of America.
Since the advent of the Renaissance, a bunch of us across the country have been figuring it out— how to tour without losing cash to at least break even. But here I’m going to spill all my secrets and let you know how I do it. I have a strong conviction that the more and more poets who make the jump to break dawn and bounce from city to city sharing their work that a cross-pollination will occur and produce a new American poetic. You very well can become an instrumental figure in this burgeoning new era. So let’s get into this.
What Do you Need to Pack?
I tend to always pack light and I suggest you do too— laundry is an accessible thing along the road and if worse comes to worse what poet hasn’t washed their jeans in the bathroom sink of a Casey’s General Store? Bring some clothes but don’t go too wild. You’re going to need some space cause whenever I go on tour I come back with dozens of books that people gift me wherever. Throw a jar of peanut butter in your bag cause that’ll save you in case you stumble into a harrowing night. Really just bring what you think you need. Don’t be the goofball who tours with a huge luggage bag.
Oh and grab a harmonica in case everything goes wrong and you end up beat on the side of the road — it’s easier to busk with a harmonica than poetry I swear.
Yo Bruh, How Do You Like Get Shows?
I’ve said it before but the entire national poetry scene is just a few dozen folks with smartphones and many of them have existed as islands for a long time but we’re changing that. If there’s one commodity that every poetry scene worth any salt is short of it is fresh talent and that’s where the touring poet comes. The easiest way is to contact the organizers and dm them asking if they’re booking and then pitching yourself. But how can you know who to hit up?
I’m working on a project that is taking a lot of time but here is the Poetry Show Master list where I am working on getting every show and organizer in the country on one spreadsheet. It’s not nearly done and every week more and more shows will appear. I’ve been pitching on social media about this and have had offers from presses and companies to collaborate on it but in order to make sure this information is not paywalled or sold I’m doing it myself.
A Google Spreadsheet. A link. Every bit of information I have and find will be added to it. Now look we’re all on even footing.
If you’re new to this, it’s like anything else and you’re going to have to do some climbing and swinging. Though a DM to an organizer asking to open for their own shows will usually always be accepted. Many poetry shows are not paid and that’s why your books are your daily bread but there are festivals, college readings, poetry slams, punk rock shows and loads of other opportunities that do pay. A poet who just hits the road shouldn’t dream of getting guaranteed rates at shows— those opportunities come with enough blood you’re willing to spill.
There is the myth that there is no money in poetry but they’re lying. But in the infancy of touring the only currency you’ll be getting is enough cash to get to the next city and hopefully the foundations of a fanbase if you hit them hard enough. But there are pockets and areas that maybe you can’t get into and sometimes if you have to showing up at random occurring open mics unannounced can pave you an opportunity. In May of 2023, Scott Laudati & I went on the Sons of Italy Tour and most of it was just Kerouacian adventures and popping into open mics. Ya try and get booked first but if you can’t than just see what’s already happening and pop in. You can pave a whole new destination for future tours.
How We Funding This Whole Thing Anyway?
The Tour Chapbook. Like Printing Money
If you’re already looking to hit the road than I’m assuming that you have a book or some kind of merchandise that you’re looking to sell and those book sales don’t need to pay the expenses. That’s so old school. Instead, every larger tour my friends or I do now we DIY a Tour Chap or in another life what was known as a ‘reader’ but that sounds so boring. A tour chapbook is a short print run of poems from the poets who are touring that are usually self-made and exclusive to the string of shows. These don’t need to be of the same quality as your chapbooks or full lengths— nah man this is what it is— a memento for a moment in time— a little piece of art and poems that you can blast out on your laser jet printer.
I’ve published three of these in the last year The Shape of Poetry To Come, Sons of Italy and Heralds of the Damned and these were just three or four poems from each poet made with card-stock and computer paper that we sell for $5. While every poet has their own works, these are easy to push as it has something from everyone and if you do it right you can bring the cost down to like fifty cents. It’s a bit of labor and the folding and stapling is a journey itself but now boom. When we tour we use the tour chapbook to pay for the gas, booze, cigarettes, and then food. At the end of the trip the funds from that are distributed among the poets.
This way no one has to doll out gas money from their own money or from their book-sales. Easy.
You Can Sell Your Books At Independent Bookstores
We try to hit every single independent bookstore we come across as a rule of thumb to just check it out and look for any gold lingering neglected in their corner bookshelves. But also, many bookstores will throw you some cash for a few books of yours and that’s a win-win to put some dough in your pocket but also to get your book in some new avenues.
We Don’t Do Hotels My Dood
When I was talking about the tour chapbooks and where those profits go, I never once brought up hotels and that’s because they are a waste. The best way is to find people to crash with in those cities — usually the organizer can help or at least put you in contact with someone who can house you. The poetry community is made of many components and there are loads of poets who want to tour but they can’t due to responsibilities but those are the folks who love having some touring wild folks over at their crib. This is always the way. One you get to stay with real people and have a local who is already of the local community and two, this is where all the wild parties happen. Often you’ll be put up and the local scene will come kick it after the shows and the night will run off with beer foam and you’ll be limping to the next city.
Though it’s always good to have some hotel money in the back pocket in case shit falls through and you don’t feel like sleeping in the park. In a pinch a hotel room can save your ass but don’t sink into a hole over it. You’re gonna sleep in weird places. It’s part of the art baby.
The Mission is to Blow Em All Away Every time
The thing about poetry is that at the end of the day it’s all up to you and if your poetry and performance is not up to snuff I wouldn’t consider hitting the road just yet— build up those chops in your local scene before you bring it out to new audiences. The touring poet has one goal and one goal only: to be the best mother fucker in the room and to connect with the crowd. it’s your set that will determine if you sell books or what will come of it. This is the big leagues now and unlike your local scene where you are seen fairly regularly your first impression matters. So be polished. Get some sets in before you take off and hit them with all that you have.
The organizer is expecting you to entertain and no one else knows who the fuck you are— and that is where you can get them— an unknown poet who kills it is now a poet who is selling books and making a name. Work out a set list, work on your timing, delivery and all those things. If you can’t make the words sing than maybe you need to get back on the open mics before you venture out again. It’s a muscle and it needs to be worked.
Get Your Ass Off The InterState, You’re an Artist
Poetry tours are 5 percent shows, 15 percent parties and adventure and 85 percent driving through cornfields and nothingness. But you can make it a bit better and get off the main highways. Sometimes you can’t avoid it but always look for the more local options even if it tacks on a little extra time. The highways are just where we put all the strip malls man but it’s on those backroads where you find the soul of America at strange roadside attractions and country roads that could lead to nothing or heaven, you really can’t be sure. Throw on some punk rock or fuck it, get some blues going and put your pedal to the metal haunting the towns that hide between the metropolitan areas.
Find the weirdest places and drink beer in the strangest bars. This is what you do. You’re a poet. You don’t just stumble around hoping for things to happen— you are the poem and anything you do is poetry. Get weird. Just get the fuck off the interstate cause all you’re gonna see is the same cookie cutter box-stores that have already taken over your hometown.
Don’t Be an Operator Dood
The name of the game is personal connections but this isn’t some influencer culture shit that has already taken over most of the other art forms— it’s poetry’s slip into obscurity itself that has kept it liberated from some of the oppressive phony shit that has already grabbed comedy and music. Because we don’t have poets blowing up and making millions left and right we don’t contend with that. We still have soul there. There is something profoundly diy and true about the poetry thing and obviously meeting people helps bring opportunities but you can’t do this with that lizard brain going. You don’t need connections all you need is friends.
I challenge you to fall in love every night, to greet every new face you meet like long lost friends and never say no to a sudden adventure. The more you tour and get out there the more folks you meet and soon you will have friends in every city and you will cross paths with them at festivals and other poetry shows. It’s in those moments that it’s like a family reunion that doesn’t suck. There aren’t many touring poets around and there is a camaraderie for the road dogs howling their stanzas as they burn asphalt chasing Whitman’s ghost to destinations unknown. We are all in great quest together and you don’t need a list of ‘connections’ but with some good friends you can do anything.
I plan on elaborating further in more posts but for now I leave you with this and I hope to bump into you somewhere out there between the high rises and the trailer parks I got a feeling what we’re looking for is waiting for us.
The Poetry Show Masterlist is a work in progress and right now has 40 shows but by the weekend will double. This is a soft launch. If you think this guide was worth it please share it with your people and if you think it was a worth a cup of coffee consider supporting the mission my Venmo & PayPal are @damianrucci or check out my Kofi