This essay discusses printed, digital, and oral forms of twenty-first century

poetry with a particular focus on interaction. Considering poetry across multimodal

platforms, from YouTube to Instagram to Twitter, modes of reader- and author-directed

interaction are observed. After outlining the decolonial and global nature of

contemporary poetry and highlighting the works of some influential voices in poetry

today, the essay zooms in on the ways in which poetry, oral poetry in particular, travels

across digital platforms. Focusing on the work of spoken word artist Andrea Gibson,

the essay traces how their poem “Orlando” – a protest piece about the 2016 mass

massacre of queer Latinx people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando – changes and

adapts as it moves across different performance stages, to recording, to print, and

through social media.