ACTIVITIES REPORT - Squarespace · MASS POETRY: ACTIVITIES REPORT | JANUARY 1, 2014–OCTOBER 15, 2014 +2015 PROJECTIONS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Our Professional Development sessions

ACTIVITIES REPORTJANUARY 1, 2014–OCTOBER 15, 2014

+2015 PROJECTIONS

Mass Poetry supports poets and poetry in Massachusetts. We help to broaden

the audience of poetry readers, bring poetry to readers of all ages, and transform

people’s lives through inspiring verse. We are a 501(c)(3) organization.

MASS POETRY: ACTIVITIES REPORT | JANUARY 1, 2014–NOVEMBER 15, 2014 +2015 PROJECTIONS

“ Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before. ”

—Audre Lorde

Dear Friend and Supporter,

2013 and the first ten months of 2014 have seen major evolutionary steps in the development of Mass Poetry.

Some of the most significant include:

1. The growth of our Student Day of Poetry program, engaging 4,200 students in 2014

2. The launch of Poetry on the T, which replaces ads with poems on the MBTA

3. “An Evening of Inspired Leadership,” our overwhelmingly successful event in March, which brought

leaders from myriad arenas together to share and speak about a poem that is important to them

4. The adoption of the U35 reading Series, for poets under 35

5. The creation of a brand new masspoetry.org, which features a weekly Poem of the Moment by

a Massachusetts poet, regular community features, and popular series such as The State of Poetry

and Poets Who Write Prose

6. The steady growth of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, which has now become an annual fixture

7. The growth of MassLEAP’s programs, which we proudly sponsor, including Louder than A Bomb MA which

continues strengthening their critically important work in the Boston Public Schools as part of the BPS Arts

Expansion Initiative

8. New improvements in our annual production of Common Threads, the group reading and discussion

program seeking to broaden the audience for poetry

Mass Poetry has two talented staff members leading its work—Laurin Macios directing Common Threads,

Poetry on the T, Professional Development, Student Day of Poetry, and U35 Reading Series, and January Gill

O’Neil directing The Massachusetts Poetry Festival. We continue to be blessed by an amazing array of

volunteers who work on everything from our website to the festival to outreach. We are also delighted

to welcome a new development consultant to our team, Brady Moore, who is working to take Mass Poetry

to a new level of development success.

Thanks to the combination of our small, devoted staff and remarkable volunteers, we have made significant

gains. We expanded our work in and with schools, growing our statewide Student Day of Poetry event from

800 students in 2013 to 1,200 in 2014, and reaching more than 3,000 students through In-school Student Days

of Poetry. We held a successful two-day Professional Development Summer Seminar for 25 teachers in May,

and developed a complimentary fall track at the teachers’ urging. Additionally, we remain the fiscal sponsor

of MassLEAP, which produces Louder Than A Bomb Massachusetts and continues to grow their work with

Boston Public Schools through the BPS Arts Expansion Initiative.

Our public outreach is also stronger than ever. Poetry on the T is an incredibly well-received program, which

the public funded much of through our exciting Indiegogo campaign in May. After the crowd-sourced summer

months were up, the University of Massachusetts Boston picked up the tab for another four weeks, and we are

currently looking for sponsors to keep it going strong. Common Threads continues to make headway as well;

celebrating its fifth birthday in 2015, the program reaches out to people who do not regularly read poetry,

through libraries, senior centers, church groups, homeless shelters, and book clubs, seeking to provide

a pathway for them to connect with poetry, together with members of their communities.

However, we have so much more to do: each of these programs has exponential room to grow, to reach more

people, to inspire more writers and more lives. We want to see poems running continuously on the MBTA,

not just on the T but on trolleys and busses. We want to triple our outreach to schools—specifically those in

low-income communities and gateway cities. We want Common Threads to expand its reach, into more senior

centers and homeless shelters, and eventually prisons. And we’d like U35 to grow from a reading series to

a community, where young writers connect, learn together, engage with and support each other.

MASS POETRY: ACTIVITIES REPORT | JANUARY 1, 2014–OCTOBER 15, 2014 +2015 PROJECTIONS

THANK YOUFROM MASS POETRY

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Mass Poetry is an unfolding experiment. All of what we do is done with very little money, and everything we

do depends upon the support of talented and creative poets, including well known established poets such as

the former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, Maggie Dietz, Regie Gibson, Jill McDonough, and Lloyd Schwartz,

as well as dozens of brilliant younger poets just making their way into the first stages of a life in poetry.

We benefit from the involvement of an ever-growing number of middle school and high school teachers

determined to find ways to connect their students to poetry, and we benefit from the involvement of our

partner organizations: reading series, public libraries, cultural organizations, museums, MFA programs

and community groups. All of them are incredibly generous with their time and support, for which we are

incredibly, daily grateful.

We have grown immensely in scale and scope, and we are poised to take another leap ahead—with schools,

with libraries, in communities. But to achieve all of this, we need to expand our fundraising. As you will see in

the financial section of the report, we work on an extraordinarily lean budget. As one strong supporter said of

it, “The Mass Poetry budget is pathetically small.” We are proud of what we get done with so little. But to carry

out our vision we need to increase our budget in the 24 months ahead. We will need our past supporters to

continue to support us. And we will need to reach out and find new supporters who are excited by the work

we are doing.

Our hope is that you will read this report and feel proud of what you have helped Mass Poetry achieve in

2013 and 2014. If you feel strongly about our mission and our message, please forward this report to a friend

or colleague—someone who will join us on this journey to help poetry grow and thrive in the Commonwealth.

Thank you so much for your continuing support, for your faith in us, and in the power of poetry.

Michael Ansara

Co-founder, Mass Poetry

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND TEACHERS

Igniting a love of poetry. Transforming lives.Creating the next generation of poets.Supporting teachers. Building new audiences for poetry.

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“ I enjoyed listening to the open mike of the kids from our school. It made me look at them in a different way and with much more respect.”

—Newburyport High School student after an In-school SDOP

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND TEACHERS

“ I learned about metaphor and imagery and the importance of

searching for the truth beneath the surface.” —Newburyport High School student after an In-school SDOP


Mass Poetry’s programs in partnership with schools range from our Student Day of Poetry program (which includes both a Statewide Student Day of Poetry field trip and In-school Student Days of Poetry) to Professional Development work with educators to bolster their teaching of poetry writing, to the placement of poet-educators in low-income, inner-city schools.

Student Day of Poetry Between our Statewide and In-school Student Days of Poetry, we reached 4,200 students and employed 85 poets in 2014. Statewide Student Day of Poetry On Friday, March 21, more than 1,200 students and 74 teachers from 29 schools across Massachusetts converged on the University of Massachusetts Boston campus to write, learn, read, perform, and experience poetry with 37 poets. Student Day of Poetry has grown from 400 students in 2011, to 800 students in 2012 and 2013, to 1,200 students in 2014. 2015 Projections:We project 2,500 students will participate in our statewide events in 2015, which will be formatted for the first time into regional breakouts, with 500 students per region. Regional SDOPs will be held in Boston, the North Shore, the South Shore, Central MA, and Western MA. In 2016, we will convene again for one statewide Student Day of Poetry.

In-school Student Days of PoetryStarting in December 2013, we began reinvigo-rating our in-school work with In-school Student Days of Poetry, through which we take the elements of our statewide Student Day of Poetry on the road directly into middle and high schools across the state. The typical In-school Student Day of Poetry opens with a poetry sampler (each poet reading one poem), moves into writing-generative workshops with no more than 30 students per workshop leader, then convenes again for a reading, performance, and finally a student open mic. In 2014, we held five such events, reached 3,000 students, and employed 48 poets.

2015 Projections:We already have three In-school Student Days of Poetry lined up for spring 2015. We project that in 2015, In-school Student Days of Poetry will reach 6,000+ students through ten events, and employ 100 poets.

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“ I basically learned how to imagine.” —A student from Margaret Young’s workshop “Poems for Lunch” at Statewide SDOP 2014

According to student surveys, as a direct result of one of our Student Days of Poetry,

THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS

INTERESTED IN READING POETRY

INCREASED FROM 34% TO 70%,

AND THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS

INTERESTED IN WRITING POETRY

INCREASED FROM 44% TO 65%.

“ Louder Than a Bomb (MA) has shown me a whole group of fantastic poets that are now like family.”

—Shaheem Durham, youth poet from Codman Academy (Dorchester, MA)

SPONSORED PROGRAMS

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MassLEAP’s programs include:

Louder Than A Bomb MassachusettsThe first and largest annual youth poetry slam festival in Massachusetts provides a platform for a diverse group of young people to gather in community, share their stories, and celebrate the transformative power of poetry. Last year, over 30 schools and youth organizations throughout Massachusetts participated in the four-day festival. Schools sponsor teams of poets who work together throughout the year. The festival offers a poetry slam tournament, workshops and presentations that bring young people together across geographic lines.

Spoken Word Professional Development ProgrammingFor the second year, MassLEAP is proud to partner with the Boston Public Schools Arts Expansion Initiative to offer BPS Theatre Arts and English Language Arts Teachers the opportunity to engage in a yearlong community learning cohort, with a focus on the pedagogy, educational philosophy, and techniques of using performance poetry in the class room.

School Residency ProgramsMassLEAP offers a varied menu of in school & after school programming. Through partnership with the BPS Arts Expansion Initiative, Mass LEAP has been able to offer yearlong residencies to Community Academy of Science & Health in Dorchester as well as Urban Science Academy in West Roxbury. Mass LEAP has also worked with dozens of schools throughout the Commonwealth, offering services from one time poetry performance assemblies, to week-long residencies, to short-term, after-school workshops.

SPONSORED PROGRAMSMass Poetry is proud to serve as fiscal sponsor of the Massachusetts Literary Education and Performance Collective (MassLEAP).


PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Our Professional Development sessions and seminars for educators on the teaching of poetic craft and technique, led by successful and engaging poet-instructors, has grown throughout 2014.

Our 2014 Professional Development Summer Seminar held at the University of Massachusetts Boston, led by poets and professors Jill McDonough and Maggie Dietz, was a 15-hour, two-day event focused on the teaching of poetry writing for middle and high school students. It included workshops on using meter in the classroom, inspiring students to write from the point of view of objects and/or other people, teaching the importance of line breaks, and writing from history using primary sources as inspiration. 25 teachers were in attendance.

Attendees at our Summer Seminar asked for Saturday sessions throughout the fall, and we answered them with our Autumn Sessions—four

Saturday sessions spread throughout the fall semester, focused on not just strengthening student writing, but also on particular aspects of the classroom, for example a workshop with Cole Rodriguez entitled, “Poetry Writing as a Language Learning Tool,” and a session with 20-year Brookline High School teacher Alison Frydman Whitebone called, “Teaching Poetry Writing While Navigating Standardized Tests.”

2015 Projections:In 2015 we plan to hold our ever-popular Summer Seminar at the University of Massachusetts Boston, as well as a handful of additional sessions at our office. We are also currently exploring the possibility of taking Professional Development sessions directly into schools or districts to work with whole departments. In 2015, the University of Massachusetts Boston will provide teachers with graduate credits for their participation in our seminars.

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“ The teachers were wonderful and thoroughly knowledgeable in their subject, talented in their craft, and encouraging in their teaching. The exercises they introduced were do-able and aligned with many aspects of the Common Core.”

OUTREACH

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OUTREACHBroadening the audience for poetry.Touching people’s lives with inspiring verse.Promoting Massachusetts poets.


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Common Threads 2014

In March, the fourth edition of Common Threads, our reading and discussion program to celebrate National Poetry Month and broaden the audience for poetry in Massachusetts, was released. The issue highlighted ten Massachusetts poets and poems with the hope of fostering group discussions in libraries, schools, churches, senior organizations, colleges, bookstores, and book clubs. A successful and popular corresponding panel discussion was held at the 2014 Massachusetts Poetry Festival.

“Gathered here are ten poems that embody and reflect upon and sometimes even answer the kinds of urges and imperatives we experience. All with deep ties to Massachusetts, these poets span decades and continents and expansive aesthetic domains, and, of course, each of the poems here can be read in multiple ways, each possesses multiple powers. One way to read them is for the fierceness and elegance and intelligence with which they demonstrate how poetry, how language itself, is the locus of both call and response for our most pressing questions and

needs, our strange callings.” –poet Lisa Olstein, Guest Editor, Common Threads 2014

The 2014 issue of Common Threads included:1. “Late Air” by Elizabeth Bishop2. “Syntax” by Jorie Graham3. “spring is like a perhaps hand”

by E. E. Cummings 4. “Poppies in October” by Sylvia Plath5. “Or” by Thomas Sayers Ellis6. “An American Poem” by Eileen Myles7. “Lullaby” by Peter Gizzi8. “Halley’s Comet” by Stanley Kunitz9. “Resume” by Agha Shahid Ali10. “For the Graduation” by Robert Creeley

2015 Projections:Common Threads will be celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2015. The issue will feature eight poems chosen by Guest Editor Alice Kociemba, Director of Calliope Reading Series at the Falmouth Public Library, along with discussion questions, writing prompts, and more, including the essay “How to Read a Poem” by Robert Pinsky. Our outreach is underway, and for the first time we will be launching a public listing of Common Threads discussion groups open for attendance across the state, as well as posting videos, photos, and more from groups who send them in. For the first time, we will also be offering to pair discussion leaders with poets who can help facilitate a discussion group, as well as offering a live webinar on how to lead a discussion group.

OUTREACH

“ After a particularly trying day a few weeks back, I got onto a Red Line car, and, discov-ered Fred Marchant’s ‘A Place At the Table’ facing me on the subway car. This—Fred’s poem—almost made me burst into tears it was so exactly what I needed to hear at that moment.”

THE MOST OBVIOUS IS FUNDING—FUNDING FOR POET EDUCATORS AND FOR COORDINATORS AND MENTORS. THE SECOND IS THE NEED FOR RIGOROUSLY TRAINED POET EDUCATORS WHO HAVE THE SKILLS AND A PROVEN CURRICULUM THAT WILL BE EFFECTIVE WITH STUDENTS IN LOW-PERFORMING SCHOOLS.

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Poetry on the TPoetry on the T enables the more than one million people who ride the T every day—to get to work, school, home, to go to restaurants, bars, parks—to read poetry during their commute, in place of advertisements.

Poetry on the T was launched in April 2014 in celebration of National Poetry Month. It was so well received and supported by our poetry community that we were able to fund eight more weeks of Poetry on the T in May and June. An Indiegogo campaign launched in May helped us raise the funds to keep Poetry on the T up all summer, while helping us show large, longer-term sponsors that people want to see poems in place of ads. UMass Boston sponsored September– October 2014, and we are currently looking for sponsors to keep Poetry on the T a regular sight for Boston’s one million daily commuters.


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Reprinted with permission of Hobart (www.hobartpulp.com)

The Beautiful Woman The beautiful woman opposite me on the bus is laughing

and fat. I love her braided hair. I want her ring, her laughing

mouth. I love her so much I take her picture. She is on the phone.

I think she knows I’m taking her picture. I think she doesn’t care.

I love her spill of thigh-fat freed from that rise of grey knit skirt.

She doesn't care we're trying not to stare. We only wish

whoever she's teasing on the phone was us. No, no, no! She

can barely get it out, says something in a laugh-choked

half-bus-drowned patois. She makes me want to pack the pounds

on both my thighs, go back to the time I found frosted blue eyeliner

like hers. I was twelve, didn't know the hundred ways happiness felt.

It's always like this for her: she moves through a world that’s wilting

with love. All the world’s busses filled with dopey smilers, every

face on every sidewalk beaming back at her, wishing her well.

—Jill McDonoughAssistant Professor of English and Director, MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston

Sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Boston MFA in Creative Writing

“ I was on the red line the other day and looked up and there was a poem! It was ‘Ceremony’ by Christopher Millis. This will sound ridiculous, but I was so excited! I read the poem, pointed it out to my fellow travelers—it was enjoyed by all. It really made up for my sweaty, crowded ride.”

OUTREACH

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An Evening of Inspired LeadershipOn March 31, 17 Massachusetts leaders in varying fields and industries came together in front of a jam-packed Huntington Theatre to share and speak about a poem that has inspired them.

Most people think the world of leadership is far removed from the world of poetry, yet many leaders treasure poetry. Most people think an interest and passion for poetry is restricted to the world of would-be poets and those who frequent independent bookstores. Those women and men working hard to change the world would never have the time to love and treasure poetry.

Yet as Robert Pinsky’s Favorite Poem Project has so powerfully documented, a wonderfully diverse group of people love a specific poem or many poems. On March 31st, Mass Poetry demonstrated the diversity leaders who love poetry—leaders

as diverse as the Governor of Massachusetts, the former Boston Police Commissioner, the first female Bishop of the Anglican Church, the CEO of a hugely successful pharmaceutical company, leaders of non-profit organizations and media personalities all shared poems that mattered to them. Leaders from Chinatown and Roxbury, a college president, the founder of Year Up, joined Robert Pinsky, Governor Patrick and Mass Poetry’s own Michael Ansara on the stage of the Huntington Theatre.

This was our first evening of leadership and poetry. It was a stunning success. Even if it had not raised badly needed funds for the organization, we would do it again simply for the significant and moving sharing of poems by such a diverse group of our Commonwealth’s leaders. We are planning to host another evening of Leadership and Poetry in the spring of 2015.


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The 2014 Evening of Inspired Leadership:

Joshua BogerFounder and former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals“The Goat” & “Alzheimer’s Monkey,” Christopher Millis

Gerald ChertavianFounder of Year Up“Risks,” Author unknown

Ed DavisFormer Police Commissioner of the City of Boston“The Wreck of the Hesperus,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Paul GroganPresident of the Boston Foundation“To Be of Use,” Marge Piercy

Barbara HarrisFormer Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts“On Love from the Prophet,” Khalil Gibran

Giles LiExecutive Director of Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center“Self Help for Fellow Refugees,” Li-Young Lee

Bill LittlefieldHost of NPR’s Only a Game“The Day After Tomorrow,” Tom Waits

Derek LumpkinsExecutive Director of Discover Roxbury“Harlem Night Song,” Langston Hughes

Michael MasoManaging Director of the Huntington Theatre Company“Attack of the Crab Monsters,” Lawrence Raab

Porsha OlayiwolaEnrichment and Recruitment Coordinator of Codman Academy“An Untitled Piece,” Latasha Snider

Deval PatrickGovernor of Massachusetts“The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus

Robert PinskyFormer U.S. Poet LaureateDirector of the Favorite Poem Project“Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden

Jackie Jenkins ScottPresident of Wheelock College“And Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou

Jo ShapiroChief of the Division of Otolaryngology in the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital“Shoulders,” Naomi Shihab Nye

Ron WalkerExecutive Director of the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color“Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes

Gloria White-HammondCo-Pastor of Bethel AME ChurchExecutive Director of My Sister’s Keeper“Honey, I Love,” Eloise Greenfield

Robin YoungHost of WBUR’s Here & Now“To Be of Use,” Marge Piercy

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COMMUNITY

COMMUNITYBridging poetic communities.Creating opportunities.Boosting the creative economy.


The Massachusetts Poetry FestivalNow in its sixth year, the Massachusetts Poetry Festival continues to attract new poets and poetry lovers from across the country. The festival attracts a diverse crowd of 1,500 poets and poetry lovers to Salem to enjoy three days of performances, workshops, spoken word, a small press fair, art in improbable places, and children’s- and family-oriented programming. Our 2014 festival, held May 2–4, included headline poets Carol Ann Duffy, Philip Levine, Cornelius Eady, Oliver de la Paz, Susan Rich, Kim Addonizio, Li-Young Lee, Forrest Gander, C.D. Wright, Lucie Brock-Broido, David Ferry, and Rhina P. Espaillat.

Attendance has held steady during the past three years, and continues to garner extraordinary media attention.

• More than 100 poetry-themed readings, sessions, workshops, and events, took place throughout the weekend, with nearly 200 poets and artists producing events.

• Our dedicated volunteers, many of whom have volunteered with us before, came out strong to help visitors navigate the streets of Salem. More than 100 volunteers wearing not-to-be-missed yellow shirts kept the festival running smoothly.

• Once again, The Peabody Essex Museum provided venue space and a variety of children’s programming to support our efforts.

• A site-specific art installation produced by Colleen Michaels and Montserrat College of Art provided a much-needed respite for attendees. The installation was part of the Improbable Places Poetry Tour series of events.

• Elizabeth Bradfield of Broadsided Press brought public art to the Streets of Salem. Her public participation art instillation made it possible to viewers to stop, stroll, read, and respond to poetry from Broadsided artists.

• Popular sessions produced by our poetry partners included Cave Canem and Kundiman, celebrating the diversity of poets participating in this year’s event.

• Panel topics this year ranged broadly from The State of Poetry, poetry and gender, book publishing, and Modernism in Contemporary art, to the Common Threads Reading, where contemporary poets with Massachusetts ties discussed their literary heirs.

This festival demonstrates the extraordinary possibilities of poetry to reveal the personal and political experiences of American life.

We continue to develop strong ties to the Salem community and our partners, The Peabody Essex Museum and Salem State University. Additionally, working with Destination Salem and The City of Salem has made the difference in producing a sustainable event. The festival values its relationships with area businesses, restaurants, shops, and services throughout downtown Salem and across the North Shore.

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COMMUNITY

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WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE SEVENTH MASSACHUSETTS POETRY FESTIVAL, WHICH WILL BE HELD IN SALEM MAY 1–3, 2015.


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U35 Reading SeriesU35 is a bi-monthly reading series for poets under 35, held once each January, March, May, July, September, and November at a lounge in Downtown Crossing, Boston’s new Literary District. Mass Poetry adopted the four-year-old reading series from its founder, Daniel Evans Pritchard, in May. U35 seeks to promote and bolster Massachusetts poets under 35 while giving them a venue to share their work and connect with other poets under 35. Three poets are featured per month, chosen via a sign-up form on our website, and vary from the unpublished poet to the well-published, the formal to the wildly experimental.

In an effort to further bolster U35 poets, Mass Poetry records their readings and posts them to masspoetry.org and youtube.com/masspoetrychannel.

2015 Projections:We would like to grow U35 from a reading series into a full-fledged community. To that end, we will be producing U35 workshops, industry panel discussions, hosting biannual parties, and more in 2015 and beyond.

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Masspoetry.orgWe launched a brand new masspoetry.org this September. It features a sleek, clean look, an easily navigable menu, and a boost in content. Visitors will find:

• An interactive statewide poetry calendar • Popular series such as Poets Who Write Prose, The State of Poetry, and Poetry Communities in Massachusetts• At least one new feature story or interview each Monday • A new Poem of the Moment each Monday and a complete Poem of the Moment archive• New Books by Massachusetts Poets: a sales gallery plus interviews • A sponsorship menu featuring opportunities to support each of our programs

NewslettersOur electronic mailing list has grown to more than 5,400. Subscribers now receive:

• A weekly newsletter featuring the latest from Mass Poetry: the weekly Poem of the Moment, featured stories, information about our programs, upcoming opportunities, and more• A monthly Massachusetts Poet in the Spotlight email, which celebrated its one-year anniversary this September. The Spotlight is both an incentive for our Poetry Partners, who are highlighted alongside the poet they nominate, and a method of promoting Massachusetts poets. The Spotlight contains a photo, bio, quote, and poem by a Massachusetts poet, and information about the nominating Poetry Partner.

MASSPOETRY.ORG & ONLINE COMMUNICATION

MASSPOETRY.ORG & ONLINE COMMUNICATION


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2014-2015 Poetry Partners

Amherst Live

Bagel Bards

Black Ocean

Blacksmith House

Boston Book Festival

Boston Literary District

Boston Poetry Magazine

Brookline Poetry Series

Calliope Reading Series

Cape Cod Poetry Group

The Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference

The Concord Poetry Center

Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and Program

Emerson College Writing Department

The Favorite Poem Project

Florence Poets Society

Grey Court Poets

Grolier Poetry Bookshop

Grub Street

Harvard Book Store

Hedgerow Books

Hill-Stead Museum

Huntington Theatre Company

Ibbetson Street Press

Loom Press

Massachusetts Center for the Book

MassLEAP & Louder Than a Bomb Massachusetts

Noepe Literary Center for the Arts

Perugia Press

PoemWorks

Poetry Out Loud

Poetry: The Art of Words Mike Amado Memorial Series

Powow River Poets

The Robert Creeley Foundation

The Robert Frost Foundation

Salem State University English Department

The Smith Poetry Center

Suffolk University Poetry Project

Sunken Garden Poetry Festival & Hill-Stead Museum

The Tapestry of Voices

The Theatre of Words and Music

Tupelo Press

UMass Boston MFA Program

UMass Lowell English Department

Whaling City Review

The Woodbury Poets Room

Words Apart Literary Magazine

The Writers’ House at Merrimack College

POETRY PARTNERSPoetry Partners are organizations, groups, and presses with which we share a common goal. As part of our mission to bridge poetic communities throughout the Commonwealth, we strive to promote and support our Poetry Partners as best we can, and appreciate their promotion, support, and involvement as well.

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MASS POETRY REVENUE AND EXPENSES In these 10 Months of 2014, Mass Poetry raised and spent $155,000. A little more than half of all our revenue came from individuals—through generous donations, button sales for the festival, and attendance at An Evening of Inspired Leadership. More than one-third of our revenue came through foundation grants. The remaining income is program-generated revenue—registration fees for schools, teachers, ads in our program books, etc. In 2015, we hope to increase all categories of revenues and dramatically increase business and individual sponsorships and revenue from the program book.

What is not shown in the revenue is the very significant, critical, and generous in-kind support we have received from Salem State University, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the Peabody Essex Museum. We have been able to do as much as we have, with as small a cash budget as we have, in large part due to the great generosity of these partners and their in-kind support for the festival and for the Student Day of Poetry. We simply cannot express enough our gratitude to the leadership of those three terrific institutions.

We cannot thank enough each of the donors who have shared our belief in the power and beauty and importance of poetry. We believe in poets

and poetry. We believe that young people can be transformed by poetry. We believe thousands of MBTA riders benefit enormously when they get to read a poem instead of another commercial ad. We believe that the community of poets and poetry lovers needs to be expanded and strengthened. We believe that we need to create new audiences for poetry. We believe that our lives are enriched by poems.

And we are so grateful to all of you who share those beliefs and were willing to give whatever you could to support the work of Mass Poetry. As we think this report shows, we have done a lot this past year, often on a shockingly small budget. But we could have done none of it without the support of you, our donors, our friends, our strength, our community.

Thank you.

89 CENTS OF EVERY DOLLAR RAISED GOES TO PROGRAM

REVENUE AND EXPENSES


MASS POETRY EXPENDITURES FOR 10 MONTHS OF 2014

Student, School, Teacher Programs $60, 169 39% This includes SDOP, in school programs, teacher development programs, and fiscal support of the work of LEAP in the variety of their spoken word programs including Louder than a Bomb MA.

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival $39,570 25.4%

Poetry on the MBTA $12,400 8%

Leadership and Poetry $1,768 1.2%

Common Threads $1,998 1.2%

Program Staff & Interns $21,200 13.6%

Fundraising expenses $14,146 9%

Admin, Office, Legal, Accounting $4,049 2.6%

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Mass Poetry Board Members As a young organization we are working to develop an active, diverse, and effective board.The current board is a work in progress. We hope to announce a significantly expanded board early in 2015. Currently the members of the boards are:

Michael Ansara, chair Amy GorinNorman GorinDon McLaganNicco MeleJanuary Gill O’NeilLloyd SchwartzSharon Shaloo

Advisory BoardKathleen AgueroMichael Ansara, chairJennifer BarberDaniel BoschKevin BowenChristopher CastellaniMaggie ClevelandCharles CoeTom DaleyJarita DavisRaffael De GruttolaMaggie Dietz

Patrick DonnellyAmy DryanskyRhina EspaillatTim GagerHarris B GardnerDanielle GeorgesReginald GibsonMichelle GillettMark GosztylaBarbara Helfgott-HyettGayle HeneyRichard HoffmanDoug HolderJoan HoulihanJennifer JeanJim KatesBarbara KearneyClaire KeyesAlice KociembaGeorge KovachJacquelyn Malone

Frederick MarchantPaul MarionGail MazurKyle McCordJill McDonoughDon McLaganNicco MeleIfeanyi MenkitiWendy MnookinJanuary Gill O’NeilJoyce PeseroffRenata RoskopfAimee SandsMark SchorrLloyd SchwartzJ.D. ScrimgeourSharon ShalooJanaka StuckyJohn TrimburMark WagnerDaniel Wuensch

2014 Annual Report published by:Michael Ansara, Co-founder, Mass Poetry

Laurin Macios, Program Director, Mass PoetryJanuary O’Neil, Executive Director, Massachusetts Poetry Festival

Brady Moore, Development Director, Mass Poetry

This annual report can be downloaded at www.masspoetry.org. Questions? Contact us at [email protected].

Please consider supporting the work of Mass Poetry through a donation. Go to www.masspoetry.organd click on the Donate button.

Documents

ACTIVITIES REPORT - Squarespace · MASS POETRY: ACTIVITIES REPORT | JANUARY 1, 2014–OCTOBER 15, 2014 +2015 PROJECTIONS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Our Professional Development sessions