Thank You from Lisa and Poetry in America
[{"sender": "Lisa New", "recipients": ["Jeffrey Epstein [jeevacation@gmail.com]", "Leah Reis-Dennis"], "timestamp": "12/19/2016 4:36:41 AM", "subject": "Thank You from Lisa and Poetry in America", "body": "Dear \nJeffrey \n(and please see note at bottom), \nThis end-of-the-year letter is to catch you up on developments and to report progress made in 2016 \nby Poetry in America, by its associated non-profit production company, Verse Video Education, and \nby (and with) our new Harvard partner, the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. Whether \nyou are a longstanding adviser and supporter of Poetry in America, or you've more recently joined our \ncircle of proponents, your contributions, thought partnership and enthusiasm have made this year's \nsuccesses possible. \nLast fall, I knew this would be a crucial year. Goals for 2016 included moving our co-produced \ntelevision series, Poetry in America, toward a concrete release date (now entering post-production, \nwe launch nationwide in April 2018), converting our six HarvardX MOOC modules into for-credit \ncourses (now complete and being offered by Harvard's Division of Continuing Education), and getting \nthe word out on our first course developed especially for K-12 educators, Poetry in America for \nTeachers: The City from Whitman to Hip Hop. With a mission of creating and distributing the highest-\nquality humanities content for a wide variety of learners, our projects now rely on a salaried \nproduction staff of five, a rotating corps of part timers and contractors, and a growing cohort of \nHarvard graduate students, undergraduates and interns whom we train in the public-facing \nhumanities. Growing fast, in 2016 we more firmly established Verse Video Education as a nimble and \nstable producer of humanities-based content (now including an archive of over 120 separate \ninterviews with distinguished discussants), while also defining a forward-looking partnership and \ngrowth strategy with Harvard. As 2016 draws to a close, I have much progress to report. \nVerse Video Education: Independent 501c3 \nIn April 2016, Verse Video Education, the fledgling production company I'd founded in 2014, received \nIRS approval and became a 501c3. Now capable of accepting philanthropic contributions, Verse \nVideo Education has also begun to generate revenue by producing high-quality educational media for \nother institutions. Clients within our first year included Greenwich Country Day School, YIVO Institute \nfor Jewish Research, Schlesinger Library, Harvard Institute for Global Health, and Project Zero. While \nphilanthropic donations remain essential, work for clients allows us to amplify the impact of \nphilanthropic donations, not only permitting additional investment in our flagship partnerships with \nWGBH and Harvard, but also fostering development of new partnerships and projects. These include \na video series on poetry and science now running with award-winning magazine Nautilus, a \ncollaboration with distinguished poet Robert Pinsky and his Favorite Poem Project, and an expansion \nof our poetry film series with partners at The Nantucket Project. Advised by a stellar and diversely \ntalented board, Verse Video Education is looking toward sustainability. We are now discussing \ndistribution of new content with a variety of stakeholders, including media providers in China. \nNew Harvard Partner: Bok Center for Teaching and Learning \nMeanwhile, Poetry in America has deepened its partnership and formulated a plan for growth going \nforward at Harvard. This fall, Harvard's Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Mike Smith, \nendorsed the integration and expansion of my public-facing humanities work within the Derek Bok \nCenter for Teaching and Learning. As a Bok Fellow this year, and alongside Bok director Rob Lue in \nthe years to come, I will be working to substantially expand Bok's capacity and resources to train \nhumanists in 21st-century methods of public engagement-- developing courses, digital fellowship \nopportunities and also securing distribution outlets and partners for content produced in Bok by \nHarvard humanists. By next year at this time, I will be turning some of my attention beyond poetry (my \nfavorite, but hardly the only humanistic mode of communication!) to create a wider base of \nhumanities materials for use in American schools and other institutions. We will begin integrating and \nanchoring Poetry in America content (on art, sport and play; on the environment; and on health and \nwell being) with content created by others. As I continue to experiment with use of digital media \nwithin my residential courses for undergraduates and graduates, I shall also be working with other \nfaculty and graduate students. My work at Bok will also facilitate collaborations between humanists \nworking across the whole university. Projects for 2017 include work with HarvardX on drama and \nShakespeare, with Harvard's Center for the Environment, with the Arts and Humanities Initiative at \nHarvard Medical School, and with several programs within Harvard's Graduate School of Education. \nLaunching in 2017: Our First Course Designed Specifically for Teachers \nVerse Video Education has allocated much of its staff time this year to bringing its first course \ndesigned specifically to support the American secondary classroom to completion. Poetry in America \nfor Teachers: The City from Whitman to Hip Hop draws on assets created at HarvardX, along with \nfootage captured with our TV partners and independently by Verse Video Education. The resulting \ncourse, designed for English, Social Studies, and Arts teachers, as well as for librarians, \nadministrators and others, provides deep content instruction as well as pedagogical training. \nCommon Core aligned, this course, the first of its kind, is now open for enrollment, and will launch \nJanuary 23rd. We are currently discussing group enrollments with major educational systems and \nreformers across the nation, and we are also raising scholarship funds for strapped enrollees. Over \ntime, we hope to play a leading role in improving literacy and in strengthening the humanities across \nthe American educational landscape. \nAiring Nationwide in 2018: Poetry in America, The Television Series \nIn May 2016, Verse Video Education was asked by WGBH and American Public Television to expand \nits television series in development from 8 to 13 episodes, listed below. \nThe following episodes are entering post-production: \nOn Edward Hirsch's \"Fast Break\": Shaquille O'Neal, Pau Gasol, Shane Battier, Edward Hirsch, \nand an on-court pick-up basketball chorus filmed at Success Academy Charter School; On W.H. \nAuden's \"Musee Des Beaux Arts\": Ambassador Samantha Power, David Brooks, Peter Sacks; On \nRobert Hayden's \"Those Winter Sundays\": Vice President Joe Biden, Elizabeth Alexander, Angela \nDuckworth, Kevin Young, and a chorus of fathers and sons; On Carl Sandburg's \"Skyscraper\": \nFrank Gehry, Robert Polito, and a chorus of Young Student Poets; On Nas's \"New York State of \nMind\": Nas, Russell Simmons, Salamishah Tillet, Steve Stoute, and a chorus of hip hop heads; On \nGalway Kinnell's \"The Grey Heron\": E.O. Wilson, Robert Hass, Laura McPhee; On Gwendolyn \nBrooks's \"To Prisoners\": Anna Deveare Smith, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Li-Young Lee and a \nchorus of exonerees from the Innocence Project; On William Carlos Williams's \"This Is Just To \nSay\": Woody Allen, Jane Hirshfield, Rafael Campo and a chorus of couples young and old; On \nLangston Hughes's \"Harlem\": President Bill Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Sonia Sanchez and a chorus \nof children from Promise Academy; On Allen Ginsberg's Hymmnn from \"Kaddish\" and \"Hum \nBom\": Bono, Juan Felipe Herrera and a chorus of clergy. \nThe production of the following episodes will wrap early 2017: \nOn Emily Dickinson's \"I cannot dance opon my Toes\": Cynthia Nixon, Yo Yo Ma, Marie Howe \nand Bill T. Jones; On Marianne Moore's \"The Fish\": Jorie Graham, Edward Norton, Conservation \nInternational scientists, and the passengers and crew of oceanographic vessel The Alucia; On \nElizabeth Bishop's \"One Art\" or Edna St. Vincent Millay's \"Four Sonnets.\" \nJeffrey, \nJust a quick note to thank you again for all the help you've given me. The generous contribution you \nmade last year to Verse Video Education is now in use (we've hired our new editor!). Once he helps \nus to plow through the work of this year, we'll begin to look forward to crafting educational content on \nthe literature of art, sport and play (these materials now including footage from recent shoots with \nShaquille O'Neal, Yo Yo Ma, Cynthia Nixon, Bono and others). 100K makes so much possible. \nBut, of course, you've also been a key preceptor as I've learned how --squirming all the way--the \nsausage really gets made in public television. I can't say I've been entirely successful in taming costs \nthere, but I've been far better armed and more mindful of what they should be after the stern tutorial \nyou administered. \nWhenever Templeton might be ready to evaluate another application, I'm ready for another proposal \nfor them. I wonder if you might arrange a meeting for me with the famous Bamaby? I can't yet afford a \ngrant writer, and so the time one of these suckers takes makes me think doing more advance \nreconnaissance is crucial. Would he meet with me? Kosher? I'd also love to meet with the Blacks as I \nget closer to making content on theatre. I hope that Debra is well. \nAnd heard there's another little Jeff in the caribbean... \nBest,"}]