Twenty U.S.-based nonprofit poetry organizations have formed the Poetry Coalition, an organizaton dedicated to promoting the value of poetry in American culture and communities.
The coalition first met in November 2015 in Santa Fe, N.M., and met again this November to firm up plans for public programming, the first of which is slated for March 2017. The program, Because We Come From Everything: Poetry and Migration, will feature each organization in the coalition presenting programs and projects on the theme of migration.
"Poetry coalition members are excited to present multiple programs on the topic of migration in March 2017 in an effort to spark new civic dialogue in ways that only poetry can," Academy of American Poets executive director Jennifer Benka said. "We believe through reading, writing, and discussing poems we learn about one another on our most human level, which inspires empathy and compassion, and hopefully positive change."
The founding members of the coalition include:
- Academy of American Poets, based in New York
- Asian American Writers’ Workshop, based in New York
- Beyond Baroque, based in Los Angeles
- CantoMundo, based in New York
- Cave Canem Foundation, based in Brooklyn
- Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival, based in Newark, N.J.
- Kundiman, based in New York
- Lambda Literary, based in Los Angeles
- Letras Latinas at Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, based in South Bend, Ind.
- Mass Poetry, based in Salem, Mass.
- National Student Poets/Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, based in New York
- O, Miami, based in Miami
- The Poetry Center, based in San Francisco
- The Poetry Foundation, based in Chicago
- The Poetry Project, based in New York
- The Poetry Society of America, based in New York
- Poets House, based in New York
- Split This Rock, based in Washington, D.C.
- University of Arizona Poetry Center, based in Tucson, Ariz.
- Urban Word/National Youth Poet Laureate Program, based in New York and Los Angeles
- Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, based in Kent, Ohio
- Woodland Pattern, based in Milwaukee, Wisc.
- Youth Speaks, based in San Francisco
This story has been updated with further information.
