February 11, 2021 (New York, NY)— The Poetry Coalition, an alliance of more than 25 independent poetry organizations across the United States, will devote March 2021 to exploring the theme “It is burning./ It is dreaming./ It is waking up.: Poetry & Environmental Justice” in a series of programs in eleven cities that will reach an anticipated audience of more than 300,000 individuals nationwide.
The line “It is burning./ It is dreaming./ It is waking up.” is from the poem “Map” by Linda Hogan.
Poetry Coalition members aim to demonstrate how poetry can positively provoke questions in their communities about environmental justice and spark increased engagement with this urgent topic.
This will be the fifth year Poetry Coalition members have come together to offer programming on a shared theme. Members presented events and publications on the theme “I am deliberate/ and afraid/ of nothing: Poetry & Protest” in March 2020; “What Is It, Then, Between Us?: Poetry & Democracy” in March 2019; and “Where My Dreaming and My Loving Live: Poetry & the Body” in March 2018.
Any and all literary organizations, presses, libraries, bookstores, and beyond are invited to offer their own March programming on the theme in support of and in partnership with the Poetry Coalition.
Find and promote your own projects with the hashtags #EnvironmentalJustice and #PoetryCoalition.
About the Poetry Coalition
Launched in 2016, the Poetry Coalition is a national alliance of independent 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 Poetry Coalition and its programmatic efforts are supported by a major grant to the Academy of American Poets from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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 annually awards more funds to individual poets than any other organization through its prize program, giving a total of $1,250,000 to more than 200 poets at various stages of their careers. The Academy also produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; originated and 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; 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 the country’s culture. This year, in response to the global health crisis, the organization 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.