August 27, 2020 (New York, NY)— This summer, thanks to a collaboration between the Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets and its Board of Directors, the following ten organizations will each receive a $5,000 contribution from the Academy. These contributions are offered as part of the Academy’s pledge in its June solidarity statement to support nonprofit organizations and presses that center Black, Indigenous, and all poets of color.
Organizations and presses were recommended by the Academy’s Chancellors, and funds were raised by its Board of Directors.
The ten organizations and presses are:
The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center
In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poets)
Obsidian Literature & the Arts in the African Diaspora
To learn more about these ten organizations and presses, visit their respective websites.
The Academy recognizes and is grateful for their important contributions to American poetry. As Gwendolyn Brooks wrote:
We are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.
About the Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is the nation’s leading champion of poets and poetry with supporters in all fifty states. Founded in 1934, the organization produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; organizes National Poetry Month; publishes the popular Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine; provides award-winning resources to K–12 educators, including the Teach This Poem series; administers the American Poets Prizes; hosts an annual series of poetry readings and special events; and coordinates a national Poetry Coalition working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture. Through its prize program, the organization annually awards more funds to individual poets than any other organization, giving a total of $1,250,000 to more than 200 poets at various stages of their careers. This year, in response to the global health crisis, the Academy joined six other national organizations to launch Artist Relief, a multidisciplinary coalition of arts grantmakers and a consortium of foundations working to provide resources and funding to the country’s individual poets, writers, and artists who are impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.