speCt Books

Independant East Bay Printing Press & Publisher of fine books, art, and ephemera.

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

At the beginning of 2020 Eli Lilly stock, the primary endowment of @PoetryFound, was worth $132/share. Post-covid, the stock is worth twice that, $263/share. Guessing that 50-75% of PoFo's corp stock remains Eli Lilly Co, their net assets grew from ~$280M in 2019 to ~$400M today

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

New book alert!

[Nikki Wallschlaeger @nikkimwalls]

Since I signed the open letter to the poetry foundation I got this in my inbox today- letting us know that a second letter was written on our behalf to the poetry foundation, signed only by ruth lilly fellows.

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

Please send your love, light, and $ if you can afford it to speCt coeditor @matchstickbox. Robert is a poet, rising drag superstar, filmmaker, and beautiful spirit. He was just diagnosed with an aggressive thyroid cancer. More here: https://t.co/PnL5aZWkm5

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

Shut down Poetry. Shut down The Poetry Foundation. Give away the $257M.

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

@yanyi___ @chenchenwrites As always, grateful to you and others for the work and thinking you are applying to this issue

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

@yanyi___ @chenchenwrites We're also thinking over how to expand demands while maintaining focus on the fact that the financial management of the Foundation isn't changing, they are still openly embracing wealth hoarding and putting fractional percentages of the endowment back into the community

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

@FaylitaHicks Agreed

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

https://t.co/RySIwmJBSB

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

Today, speCt's petition calling on @PoetryFound to establish a $5M COVID-19 relief fund crossed a new milestone, 2500 signatures. In our eyes, the Foundation still has not committed to any substantial change in its wealth management, and will continue to accumulate millions YOY

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

Engendering change in an org like Poetry Foundation is a complicated process and a team effort. We are are going to keep our eye on the money, because it seems like the #1 one thing the Foundation has that others in the field don't.

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

@poetrymagazine A $1m commitment is only a .4% allocation of the overall endowment. The tax returns have shown that on average the Foundation makes more than $4-5m more than it spends. Feels like a buy off

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

@PoetryFound In a statement to the board upon his resignation, Bienen wrote “I have lost respect for the staff who did not defend themselves or the Foundation from attacks they knew to be false. It was their work not mine that they found they could not stand up for.”https://t.co/WgSMfyvHtZ

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

If Henry is so bitter about his departure, at least some of the board members are folks he brought in to the org, like former colleagues from Northwestern. Their opinions and outlook are surely their own, but how will their relationship with Bienen affect the prospects of change?

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

In a statement to the board upon his resignation, Bienen wrote “I have lost respect for the staff who did not defend themselves or the Foundation from attacks they knew to be false. It was their work not mine that they found they could not stand up for.”https://t.co/LfzHWrVBFb

[speCt Books @BooksSpect]

(thanks to Dispatches for the tipoff on that detail). Also, apparently they made the biggest McDonalds? But, obviously the CEO of a firm directly and proudly tied to the development and use of nuclear weapons is... not an ideal advocate for poetry?