New York, NY (March 19, 2019)— The Academy of American Poets and the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University are pleased to announce the launch of Emerge on Poets.org. Emerge is a new online tool that enables users to make, save, and send erasure poems. It was developed by the Wick Poetry Center as an application and part of its Traveling Stanzas digital toolkit, which offers a variety of resources to facilitate engagement with poetry. The Academy of American Poets and the Wick Poetry Center partnered to bring a web-based version of Emerge to Poets.org.
Visitors to Poets.org will be able to create Emerge poems from texts that address democracy as part of the Poetry Coalition’s March programming “What is it Then, Between Us?: Poetry & Democracy.” The Poetry Coalition is an alliance coordinated and funded by the Academy of American Poets of more than 25 organizations dedicated to working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. The Wick Poetry Center and the University of Arizona Poetry Center assist in the coordination of the coalition.
“The Wick Poetry Center is one of our nation’s leaders in innovating digital tools that enable audiences to experience poetry in new ways. With Emerge they’ve turned the idea of erasure poetry inside-out. Instead of striking through text, Emerge users select words, which are then surfaced emphasizing the creative act of selection. We’re thrilled to be able to offer this new tool with the many thousands of poets, readers, and educators who visit Poets.org. The fact that we’re able to launch this tool during Poetry Coalition programming is a special boon,” said Jennifer Benka, executive director of the Academy of American Poets.
“Collaboration among poetry organizations and sharing our resources is crucial to grow the readership of and support for poetry and to bring the pleasures of poetry to our everyday lives. Thanks to the Academy of American Poets and Poets.org, we are excited to extend the reach of Emerge both in terms of users and other partners,” said David Hassler, director of the Wick Poetry Center.
In addition to the Poetry Coalition project, visitors will also be able to create Emerge poems as part of the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s Art for Justice project from source texts that are representative examples of legislation and policies that have directly affected incarceration rates in the United States. The Art for Justice project is supported by the Ford Foundation.
About the Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is the nation’s leading champion of poets, poetry, and the work of poetry organizations nationwide. Founded in 1934, the organization, fueled by contributions from members in all 50 states, produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; originated and organizes National Poetry Month each April; publishes the popular Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine; offers Teach This Poem and other free award-winning resources for K-12 educators; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. In addition, the Academy of American Poets coordinates a national poetry coalition working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.
About the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University
The Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University is one of the premier university poetry centers in the country and a national leader for the range, quality, and innovation of its community outreach. Established in 1984 by Robert and Walter Wick in memory of their sons Stan and Tom, the center engages emerging and established poets and poetry audiences through readings, publications, workshops, and scholarship opportunities. Through their award-winning Traveling Stanzas project, Wick continues to bring poetry to everyday lives and has just released the book, Speak a Powerful Magic: Ten Years of the Traveling Stanzas Poetry Project.