Real Poetry: Alice Shapiro

This interview re-published with permission from the Fractured Atlas Blog.  

by Tiffany Bradley | Originally blogged on Sep 13, 2011 8:00 am

Poet and playwright Alice Shapiro has had a whirlwind year. From her appointment as the Poet Laureate of Douglasville, GA to launching the Poetry TV series, Alice has found new ways to infuse poetry into her community. She spoke with us about reality television, the creative process, and being a native New Yorker.

What inspired you to become a poet?

After a divorce, I decided to follow an art career. I painted for 15 years, but I burnt out. I was looking for another direction, and I remembered a psychic once told me I should write. I took a summer workshop at NYU and realized I liked poetry and playwriting. Of course, I don’t recommend people go to psychics.

What is Poetry TV?

After I published my first two books, I realized that people’s eyes would glaze over after I started talking about poetry. I was looking for a way to show people how fun poetry could be. I had a bad experience at school, but almost everyone has written poetry at one time in their life. It popped into my head - I could have a competition like American Idol where people could vote for their favorite poet.

How did you make your vision a reality?

The first thing I did was write a treatment and register it with Writers Guild of America East. I made the website and sent out a call for poets to register to audition. My publisher “Total Recall Press” offered a book contract as a prize. I went to an event at the 1100-acre Foxhall Resort & Sporting Club and was taken by how beautiful their space was.

I got people from the community to help out with the production part. We put together a day of filming as the community volunteered goods & services. I got judges who are high-level in the poetry community who traveled here from Florida and Oregon, and a production company that agreed to film on spec. We have 4 contestants going on to the final round, plus a 10-year-old youth spokesperson. The first episode is now in its second editing phase.

What did you learn about fundraising through this process?

I learned that large corporate donors had their charities already set - they didn’t want to go out of their comfort zone. Social services were seen as more important than the arts. When you approach a donor or corporation, the best thing to do is establish a relationship with someone first.

All the contributions for my project, whether cash or in-kind, have come from individuals or small businesses. Our venue gave a huge discount because they have a visionary perspective and saw the value in the project.

Moving on to your personal work, why did you write Remembrance?

I was just appointed as Poet Laureate of Douglasville in August, and this is my first official duty (reading a poem for a 9/11 commemoration.) It’s amazing because I’m originally from New York. I moved to Douglasville in April of 2001, right before the attack. I was waiting for my New York house to sell and staying with my sister. I had mixed feelings about not being there to help, but was also relieved that I was not in the chaos. A week after 9/11 my house sold and I moved from Douglasville to Florida. I was glued to the television for a week, but then I had to leave.

A decade after 9/11 I feel privileged to have an opportunity to express my feelings. Reflecting on these events rekindled my feelings of community with New York, but also strengthened my connection to my current community in Douglasville.

Why did you join Fractured Atlas?

I thought the nonprofit benefits of fiscal sponsorship would influence donors to give to my project. I didn’t see this as a profit-making project.  Fiscal sponsorship gave an air of integrity to the project that an independent artist might not be able to gather on their own. I attribute all of the support for the project to the fiscal sponsorship process.

What’s next?

We still need funding to film the remainder of Season 1, five more episodes. But that can be shot in one day, but we also need to pay the production company for previous work. After that we can start thinking about starting Season 2, or finding another producer to take the series to the next level.