blueprints

202 | toolkit: an idea, a pencil, and paper
can probably help you develop one, especially if you have well-articulated
values and goals. If you already know what you want to do, whether it’s
library programming, recitations, readings, residencies, workshops, afterschool
programs, or something else entirely, someone at your local arts
agency will probably have ideas about how to get started. That person may
also be able to help you with some practical issues, including providing
contacts, giving you information about how to incorporate and become a
nonprofit organization, and helping you think about funding. As early as
possible in your planning, you should make contact with these people.
You may not be able to precisely re-create the program or idea that
originally drove you—or not at least right away. It may be that your experience
came out of some large, national program or the opportunity to
study abroad or an encounter with a Nobel laureate. But remember, as
Susan Boskoff points out, that the experience of poetry, even when it comes
in company, is intimate, the experience of one person speaking to another,
creating an intimate space for that other to enter.
Checklist: Identify Passions, Define Values, Create Goals
A. With pen in hand, ask yourself these questions:
1. What experiences led me to this juncture?
2. If they involve my developing a passion for poetry, how did
they do this?
3. If they involve my sense of a need in the community for community
building, how do I describe this need? Why and how
do I think poetry might fill it?
4. What do my passions tell me about my values?
5. Why am I doing this—why me?
6. What do I hope to achieve?
B. If you began by asking these questions alone, continue by asking
them in company, again taking notes.
C. Together, you and your group members should compare experiences,
passions, values, and goals. Find where they overlap, and decide
which are most important.
D. Relying on your previous experiences to guide you, imagine what
kinds of programs might achieve your goals. Remember that a given
program might fulfill more than one goal. For example, an afternoon
reading series might give young people a place to go after school and
also engage them in civic discourse or bring them together with