Nine months in the nonplanning, Pudding House Innovative Writers Programs hosted APPLIED POETRY EXPLORATIONS, led by Jennifer Bosveld, Phil Boiarski, and Steve Abbott, invited only a livingroom full of poetry project innovators, and gave birth to kula on Saturday, April 29, 2000. Here is what happened. As soon as the official kula website is up, we'll let you know.

Picture this Headline--
Poetry steals affections of movie-goers,
hockey fans, people in line at Cracker Barrel!


final project report


APPLIED POETRY EXPLORATIONS, a weekend intensive held at and sponsored by Pudding House Writers Resource Center in Johnstown Ohio, resulted in the founding of a new nationwide nonprofit organization, kula-- poems-in-place.

Soon we will ask for your participation--whether thru membership or action. Poets! YOU are the reason this is happening.


kula
poems-in-place


Proposed website: www.kulapoetry.org

Mission Statement: (proposed)
Place more Poems
Create more Audience

Founding members: Poets from OH MI KY NY CA



Creation Story:
Participants were selected from applications and by invitation issued by Pudding House autumn 1999 for full weekend intensive called APPLIED POETRY EXPLORATIONS. Participants were charged with the task of "innovating the next major piece of the poetry revolution". Participants were asked to show up with an open mind, predisposition only to consensus-building, and no preconceptions about what might get invented this weekend.

Friday started with soup supper at 6:30pm and discussion of poetry's possible implications/applications for the future--discussion initiated by Phil Boiarski. Adjourned to livingroom with rounds of introductions of those present including major poetry significance in their lives. Jennifer led freewriting/list-making exercise requesting possible project/program/focus titles/descriptors--what we might do, addressing the possible applications for poems/poets/poetry work in the future.

L-to-R: Phil Boiarski (Galloway OH), MaryAnn Titus who researched the word kula (Westerville OH), David Baratier (Columbus), and Ben Rader (Plymouth OH).



Quick sharing of all notions ridiculous, serious, and/or passionate desires followed; each circled top three and broke into three small groups to share/defend our desires. Group charged with easing toward consensus on one or more projects, big-concepts to easy-to-do-now projects. Reconvened in large group to discuss. Smaller projects were identified as not for this group, not THE project, but as givens--"it will get done," eg. two anthology ideas that Pudding House has now decided to do: CRUDE (poems at the end of the age of oil), and an anthology on intentional living or Living Spiritually in a Consumer Society--to steal a project title from Jim Bosveld who will be an assistant editor for the project.

Four in this small group came up with the digital marquee idea: James Crissman (not shown), Steve Abbott (Columbus), Jennifer Bosveld (Johnstown), and Karen vanMeenen (Rochester NY).


Large ideas involved:
Poetry Digital Marquee; Poetry new-distribution/sales plans; better efforts for national poetry calendar. Large ideas we seemed to most support in full group were scored with both excitement and shared reservations. Nothing averaged over a 7 though (on a 1-10).

Three of the kula co-founders L-to-R: Ray McNiece (Cleveland), Phil Boiarski, David Baratier (Columbus)in the Pudding House Living Room.



An impromptu moment of joy came when Ray McNiece said there's a need for poetry events in places ...for example..."down there at the gazebo in Johnstown town square" at which time Jennifer hornswoggled the entire group to immediately walk down there to conduct an attention-getting poetry reading with Ray leading off in his dramatic manner, with others reading/performing as well--for about an hour. One fellow bicycled up and stayed through a couple of poems. A couple of cars parked nearby; inhabitants rolled down their windows to hear; teens walking by giggled and tried their darndest not to notice but failed, probably 600 drove past w/many curious drivers.

Back at Pudding House, we went back to new small groups (mixing the crews) charged with focusing on 1) revisiting projects expressed, 2) coming up with variations on themes, or 3) new ideas. 2nd small groups returned more committed with bigger thinking but obviously endowed by ideas from the first go-round as well.

Achieved consensus on the following over 2nd full-group session and dinner at Bunky's in Newark: Title of Project, need website, possible first projects, assignments for some participants, need for and election of director, need for and approval of board, need for officers, and to become 501(C)(3) non-profit organization. Karen vanMeenen was unanimously elected the first Director, all present agreed to serve the Board. We planned to ask Ray McNiece to ask The Poets League of Greater Cleveland (due to their high profile, long-standing non-profit status, and respect), to be temporary fiscal agent (for a % fee) while nonprofit status is in process. Steve Abbott agreed to head up paperwork on 501(C)(3). Decided to allow the following board members to propose one more person for board approval: Danyen Powell/CA, Jim Crissman/MI, Karen vanMeenen/ NY, Ray McNiece/Cleveland OH. Returned to Pudding House from Bunky's to several rounds of poetry readings late into the night.



________________________________

Project Outline as agreed on Saturday,
further developed on Sunday:

kula poems-in-place

WHY kula?
kula--
Sacred, endless process of gift-giving (noun). A person's net worth or a nation's gross national product are quantitative but static measures of wealth. Instead, look at places where financial tokens circulate rather than concentrate/accumulate. More importantly, the way in which the ciruclation of currency forces people to interact with one another. The great seafaring traders of the Trobriand Islands, demonstrated that it is possible to value currency in a very different way, and to engage in a kind of commerce that is truly symbolic, involving the exchange of cultural information rather than goods and services. The kula (KOO-lah), an endless, circular series of ceremonial gift-givings between groups spread out over many different islands is the name for the custom that occupies perhaps half the life of Tobriand men. All we need to do is convince enough people that true status can be gained by passing wealth around in the form of useful information, rather than hoarding or flaunting it in the form of symbolically important material objects. --Based on information from Howard Rheingold's THEY HAVE A WORD FOR IT (Sarabande Books, 2000, back in print for $16.95--get it!) Read more about kula.


Intentions
kula
is a newly formed nonprofit organization charged with inventing new opportunities for public awareness of the gift and value of poetry and poetry-related events/activities. Will seek to "place" poetry in nontraditional spaces within cities and underserved rural areas. Will target involvement by the public and will be inclusive/diverse (not just seek it). Will encourage places for poetry within one's ordinary day. Will especially use the talents of local poets and will share resources and help replicate regional activities and prototypes. Will encourage further development of kula innovations in areas of the U.S. in addition to the place of its founding, especially starting with New York and California, already represented on the board, with the intention of spreading throughout the U.S. Initial projects achieving the most support from founding members at onset are:

* Poem Dome: Traveling dome (shelter) for hosting readings, performances, displays, poetry/language art books broadsides and other products--Boiarski's idea for use at arts festivals, public events, and also for creating new space for poetry (even as part of the effort to "insinuate" ourselves into people places that do not normally experience poetry, with Poem Dome possible on vacant lots across from populated places, for example). Boiarski volunteered to research possibilities for donated new construction/design of a Poem Dome. Will need trucking corporation support for hauling city to city/space to space.

* Gallery Kiosk: Leased, bartered, consigned, or given space/s we control for sales of small-to-midlist press and poetry products currently under-exposed. Seeking cooperation from art galleries, museums, retail stores (other than media-monopoly bookstores), independent bookstores, and elsewhere with obvious consensus on galleries especially. This is an attempt to offer poetry products for sale other than in or in addition to the already concentrated commercial accumulation of bookstores/booksale wealth.

* Digital Marquee: huge splashy but most-loved physical project resulting in 1-3 electronic marquees or monoliths housed in a commissioned (from call) sculpture in public squares/spaces starting in Columbus (for prototype). Would be controlled off-site by computer. Sites most desired by small group proposing (Jim Crissman, Steve Abbott, Jennifer Bosveld, w/some financial reservations expressed by Karen vanMeenen) would assure diversity in exposure: Easton, Arena District, Columbus International Airport. Project would encourage submissions from broad range of poets/writers and incorporate neighborhood/workplace/special populations and all age groups in addition to the established menu of local poets. Project replicable nationwide; large initial investment with low maintenance down the road. Need to address vandalism issues. To be operated by a rotating editorial board and will display work fitting for public spaces frequented by people of all ages and sensibilities. Would scroll maybe 15 poems quarterly, running 24 hrs a day. Project to go through feasibility study.

* The National Poetry Calendar Website-- unless we see massive surge in coverage/energy to expand current efforts going on anyplace else, we're willing to take this on. If someone else is doing this extremely well, we'll feed to them.

* People-group focused poetry projects: Most frequently expressed populations: "Corrections"/prison/jv (has fallen apart in the U.S.); Seniors/nursing home project rejuvenation (currently too sparse); parenting; neighborhood histories; workplace. In time this work would help feed marquee project and Poem Dome, too.

* Insinuations Project: Aggressively but artistically and with "grace", seizing opportunities for poets to insinuate themselves into nontraditional public spaces for the exhibition of poems/poets work, i.e. taking over a town square, 15 showing up as a troupe in front of movie goers in the ticket line, during public comment portion of school board or city council meetings, in front of a restaurant with a waiting line, grocery store openings or parking lots, in front of hockey arenas--for as many minutes/hours as we can get away with.

* Movie ads-- before previews in movie houses. Try to go for PSA angle rather than paid, or reduced rate.


Roster

Steve Abbott, 91 W. Duncan, Columbus Ohio 43201, 614-268-5006 h, 614-287-5096 w. email: sabbott@cscc.edu sabbott@core.com. Affiliations: Pudding House, Columbus State Community College, Poetry Forum at Larrys.

David Baratier, Pavement Saw Press, Reality Theatre, 2318 N. High St., Apt. 2, Columbus Ohio 43202, 614-263-7115. baratier@megsinet.net www.pavementsaw.org

Phil Boiarski, Poet-at-Large, 839 Lakefield Drive, Galloway Ohio 43119. pboiarski@excite.com

Jennifer Bosveld, Pudding House Innovative Writers Programs, 81 Shadymere Ln., Columbus Ohio 43213, 614-986-1881 h/w. Email www.puddinghouse.com

James W. Crissman, 2887 Oakhaven Court, Midland, Michigan 48642-7869, 517-631-2790. jcrissman@home.com. Affiliations: Drainage Basin Artists Alliance, Saginaw Michigan

Chris Green, 573 Stratford Drive, Lexington Kentucky 40503, 606-277-6849. zoagreen@iglou.com www.iglou.com/KYpoetryproject. Affiliations: Door-to-Door Poetry Project and KY governors School for the Arts.

Larry Jaffe, 1954 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Feliz California 90027, 213-666-5600. larry@lgjaffe.com www.lgjaffe.com. Poetic Lisence.

Ray McNiece, Page to Stage Productions, 1-800-529-7863 or 440-918-0878 buddyraymc@aol.com

Danyen Powell, 1906 Manet Place, Davis California 95616, 530-756-6228 dpowell@ns.net

Bennett Rader, P.O. Box 34, Plymouth Ohio 44865, 419-935-1974 bennett_rader@yahoo.com, Affiliations: Pudding House.

MaryAnn Titus, 378 Allview Road, Westerville Ohio 43081, titus@cave.net, Affiliations: House of Toast.

Karen vanMeenen, 889 Harvard St., Rochester New York 14610, 716-242-0191evenings&voicemail, ren@eznet.net, Affiliations: Pyramid Arts Center.



COMMITTEES:
By-laws. Chris Green, Chair. Jennifer Bosveld will assist.

Grant-writing. David Baratier, Chair. Karen vanMeenen and Jennifer Bosveld will serve.

501(c)(3)/nonprofit. Steve Abbott, Chair.

Poem Dome. Phil Boiarski, Chair.

Public Relations. Karen vanMeenen, Jennifer Bosveld, will serve. Needs a chair.

Finance.
Fund-raising.
Transportation.
more to come


ADDITIONAL TOPICS ON THE TABLE:

Logo
$100 seed money from each board member, direct or indirect
Election of treasurer
Committees to be established
Archivist or archiving process identified
Next meeting?

Hot commitments to stay on top of:
501(c)(3) work
website domain name established/ prof. webmanager found

CONTACT INFORMATION:
on this report, Jennifer Bosveld, Pudding House, by 614-986-1881. After May 10 contact Karen, she's out of town right now.

Karen vanMeenen, Executive Director
kula-- poems-in-place
889 Harvard St.
Rochester New York 14610
716-242-0191, evenings&voicemail
ren@eznet.net