I blame Mark Winegartner. His vision was to have a "Writing Center" for Cleveland, essentially a clubhouse where writers could hang out. The organization he founded for that purpose, the Cleveland Writing Center, ended up merging with the Poet's League of Greater Cleveland. They continued to pursue his dream of having an actual physical space (even after Weingartner left Cleveland), but when they did, they never really figure out what to do with it. Turns out that writers don't need a clubhouse, and the expenses of having to pay for the place eventually dragged the Lit down. I want the Poets League back!!!!
Do we have a financial accounting of what really happened? The economy is in the dumps - is this where the money went? Did the outside funding disappear? Don't members deserve some explanation of the debt left?
As a former teacher at The Lit, I found their direction in recent years to be a bit disappointing. It seemed to move from a place for poets and writers to learn from each other to a very academically driven organization, celebrating only the major and mainstream poets in the community. From their own page, "The mission of the organization was to give voice to Cleveland’s growing community of beat style and street poets, for whom poetry was not an academic endeavor, but for whom poetry was a means of artistic, literary, social, and political expression. With a mission to promote the art of written and spoken word poetry, The PLGC was a place where workshops, classes, and poetry readings were organized and executed." This doesn't sound like what The-Lit was, or what the organization became after the change and rename.
Pottygok's right: the problem wasn't the physical space, it was the horrible leadership in recent years that did it in. Michael Salinger and I weighed in on all that in the comment section of the Clev.com story about its closing:
8 comments:
I'll miss that dinosaur.
I blame Mark Winegartner. His vision was to have a "Writing Center" for Cleveland, essentially a clubhouse where writers could hang out. The organization he founded for that purpose, the Cleveland Writing Center, ended up merging with the Poet's League of Greater Cleveland. They continued to pursue his dream of having an actual physical space (even after Weingartner left Cleveland), but when they did, they never really figure out what to do with it.
Turns out that writers don't need a clubhouse, and the expenses of having to pay for the place eventually dragged the Lit down.
I want the Poets League back!!!!
I mourn the loss. I learned so much from PWLCG - from classes, and extremely generous poets and writers. Thanks to them all.
Do we have a financial accounting of what really happened? The economy is in the dumps - is this where the money went? Did the outside funding disappear? Don't members deserve some explanation of the debt left?
As a former teacher at The Lit, I found their direction in recent years to be a bit disappointing. It seemed to move from a place for poets and writers to learn from each other to a very academically driven organization, celebrating only the major and mainstream poets in the community. From their own page, "The mission of the organization was to give voice to Cleveland’s growing community of beat style and street poets, for whom poetry was not an academic endeavor, but for whom poetry was a means of artistic, literary, social, and political expression. With a mission to promote the art of written and spoken word poetry, The PLGC was a place where workshops, classes, and poetry readings were organized and executed." This doesn't sound like what The-Lit was, or what the organization became after the change and rename.
what a great place, a fine supporter of writers of all walks....fine peeps, great environ. best memories!
Pottygok's right: the problem wasn't the physical space, it was the horrible leadership in recent years that did it in. Michael Salinger and I weighed in on all that in the comment section of the Clev.com story about its closing:
http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2011/08/the_lit_clevelands_organizatio.html
Well, now you tell us.
How about when it was going on?
I still want to know how a modest organization ended up $25,000 in debt.
Post a Comment