One of the most fragile and most fascinating aspects of the Occupy encampments was the potential of a new culture evolving spontaneously. Occupy as a movement to fight injustice can endure without the camps, but Occupy as an evolving community with its own spirituality and its own art forms may find it harder to go on.

The “Poetry Assembly” was one of the cultural aspects of the Occupy Wall Street camp at Liberty Plaza in New York. The Poetry Assembly was like a General Assembly in that it functioned through the “people's mike,” with the audience repeating each line en masse. This is completely different from either of the two leading models of poetry reading currently out there.

The standard “poetry reading” model is top-down, passive consumption: the poet reads and the audience listens. Only they mostly don't actually listen, because it's tough to pay attention to poetry presented in this way, and much easier to pay attention to your beer or other beverage of choice.

The alternative “slam poetry” model is participatory but competitive. It encourages the dumbing-down of the poetry and the mode of performance in order to make a quick impression on the fickle judges.

The Poetry Assembly is much more thoroughly participatory, because each member of the audience has to fully engage with each and every line of the poetry by reciting it back with the people's mike. Instead of simply hearing the poetry, the audience immerses itself in the poetry. And just like the General Assembly, the emphasis is on consensus instead of competition. The poets don't have to worry about out-doing each other. Instead each poem becomes a shared experience.