Did you ever hear of the Eli Lilly company? They are the pharmaceueutical company that markets Prozac, Cialis, methadone amoung other things. In 2001, Eli Lilly's great-granddaughter Ruth Lilly, decided to give away part of her fortune in charitable donations. The donation was $200 million to an impoverished little literary magazine "Poetry". Born out of the magazine was the Poetry Foundation, which then started Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry-recitation contest for high school students.
The Poetry Foundation is run by John Barr, who had been an investment banker, writer of prose and teacher in the writing program at Sarah Lawrence.
John Barr has made alot of changes in the poetry world to bring poetry into the 21st century, world of rap, text messaging,you-tube, etc. With an investment of $200 million, you can get alot done.
If you are a poet or an aspiring poet, I suggest you check out their website, maybe you can get a piece of the poetry pie!
List + Donate=Creativity!
Joanne Deutch
