Saving the NEA, One Letter & Vigil at a Time

The Chancellors of the Academy of the American Poets have published a letter expressing their support of federal funding for the arts and humanities, particularly for the NEA and the NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities). They write:

These Endowments have, over the past fifty years, fostered an educated, broadly informed, and creative America at every level, from sponsoring national awards to seeding grants that support local programs in schools, communities, military bases, hospitals, museums, and beyond, throughout the country. The Chancellors are extremely concerned, and unanimously and strongly hope and expect, that the current level of federal support for these invaluable services to the American people be maintained.

The Academy, the nation’s largest member-supported organization championing poets and poetry, has worked with and received funding from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities for a range of programs, including the first Poets-in-the-Schools program in 1966, the first major website for poetry in 1996, and a multimedia suite of free poetry lesson plans for K-12 teachers in 2016. In our own work alone, these programs and publications reach more than 20 million readers each year. Federal funding for the arts and humanities underwrites scores of other nonprofit poetry organizations and publishers, arts education programs, libraries, archives, as well as the work of individual poets. Without federal support, many of these efforts may be jeopardized.

Current members of the Board of Chancellors are Elizabeth Alexander, Ellen Bass, Toi Derricotte, Forrest Gander, Linda Gregerson, Terrance Hayes, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Khaled Mattawa, Marilyn Nelson, Alicia Ostriker, Claudia Rankine, Alberto Ríos, David St. John, and Arthur Sze.

The Chancellors aren't alone: New Directions Publishing co-director of publicity Brittany Dennison, Christopher Soto, Erin Belieu, and Kyle Dacuyan are organizing a vigil and reading for the evening of March 15 to protest the proposed cuts to the foundation at Trump Tower in New York. Check out the Facebook event for more.

Publishers Weekly also writes about the vigil. Said Rachel Zucker in a statement: "Winning an NEA in 2013 was hugely important to me." "I'm sickened by the idea that it may cease to exist. That others will not have the chance of this opportunity and that it will be part of a general diminishment and end of arts funding."