blueprints

150 | dana gioia
the free classroom materials. Press coverage was surprisingly strong, especially
at the local and state levels. Reacting to the competitive nature of the
program, the media gave Poetry Out Loud the level of attention it usually
bestows on school sports. Local winners found themselves featured in the
press like varsity athletes—a benefit not lost on school or state officials.
Many state arts officials, whose good works had mostly gone little noticed
for years, excitedly reported that mayors, state representatives, and even
governors had become enthusiastically involved in the competition.
VII.
One key to the program’s success was the strong publicity. From the beginning
we took public relations seriously as a necessary means of building
awareness and appreciation of the program. Cultural organizations are
often ambivalent, even squeamish, about courting the media. Although
they crave publicity, they worry there is something undignified, even unsavory,
about seeking it. Sometimes there is even a sense of irritation with
the press and the public—the organization is doing such valuable work
that the public should already know about it! The problem is that in a
society supersaturated by information and entertainment, both the media
and the public need to be specially engaged and educated. Few nonprofit
literary organizations have money for advertising, so any broad effort to
inform the public can only occur through media coverage. The bad news
is that successful publicity requires discipline and hard work. The good
news is that press coverage is free.
the bad news is that successful publicity
requires discipline and hard work. the good news
is that press coverage is free.
Poetry Out Loud was an entirely new program. If the public, especially
teachers and students, were to learn about it, they needed not only to be
informed but made interested. The state arts agencies sent out e-mails, but
low-impact communication is insufficient to launch and sustain a broad
national program. We needed to solve a problem that all poetry organiza