Welcome to the future. On one hand the horrors of Trump; on the other hand wild overcorrection. A quick thread about a $257 million shakedown that is a cross between Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and Barbarians at the Gate. chicagomag.com/arts-culture/J…
First: The Poetry Foundation released a statement of SUPPORT for the black community, declaring its members “stand in solidarity with the Black community, and denounce injustice and systemic racism."
Second: Activist poets and 1800 allies respond, “calling it “an insult” and “Given the stakes, which equate to *no less than genocide against Black people,* a violence.” They demand the immediate resignations of the President and board of trustees chair.
They both resign.
They both resign.
Note the extraordinary distortion of language, which is Trumpian in scope—a genocide? That is some astonishing poetic license.
The letter then calls for a reallocation of “every cent” of the $257 million endowment, a gift from the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, “to those whose labor amassed those funds.” 
“More than 1,000 poets [called for leadership] to be replaced by someone with "a demonstrated commitment to both the world of poetry and the project of creating a world that is just and affirming for people of color, disabled people, trans people, queer people, and immigrants."
“Endorsers vowed not to contribute any more work to the foundation's Poetry magazine until it made a "significantly greater allocation of financial resources toward work which is explicitly anti-racist in nature." “
A cultural arts institution is *forced* to become activist in nature.
This is literally a hostile takeover of a rich but exhausted target institution. It is a seizure of wealth to be redistributed as an ascendant raider class sees fit.
And this is what happened not because of any transgression but because of a “too-mild” statement of support!
You may not care about poetry and shrug, but it won’t stay within the world of poetry.
