"End of art is peace"
--Seamus Heaney

Founded in the 1990's by attorney Paloma Capanna and poet Ilya Kaminsky during the Balkan wars, Poets for Peace created a series of poetry readings across the nation. Los Angeles poet Larry Jaffe developed a website called Poets4peace for a similar purpose; he organized  hundreds of readings in the USA and abroad--all these events were held as a way to raise funds for organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and Survivors International.

 

The Poets For Peace readings are free, those attending are asked to donate to relief organizations.

Over the years Pulitzer Prize Winners, National Book Award Winners, and hundreds of other poets have read in support of these relief organizations.

After September 11th 2001, Poets for Peace continued to hold readings and an anthology, Against Certainty, was published that featured work by 24 poets from the San Francisco Bay Area who had been active in prior readings. Contributors included Kim Addonizio, Francisco X. Alarcón, Yehuda Amichai, Ellen Bass, Dan Bellm, Chana Bloch, Sandra M. Gilbert, Dana Gioia, Forrest Hamer, Jane Hirshfield, David St. John, and others.

Against Certainty, Chapiteau Press, ISBN 1-931498-34-2, $12.00

                           

Today Poets for Peace is directed by Erika Lutzner.

This organization's mission is to provide aid to Doctors Without Borders, Survivors International, as well as organizations that provide help to Cambodian Prostitutes, by hosting free readings of poetry in the United States and asking the audiences to donate to these humanitarian efforts.

Readings will be held on both the east and west coasts of the USA.  

About the Current Director, in her own words:

I am pursuing an MFA in poetry from New England College while hosting a monthly salon called Upstairs At Erika's in Brooklyn, NY.  Formerly, a professional chef, I also run a quarterly online journal called Scapegoat Review and am working on a memoir. My work can be found in various anthologies such as Ping Pong and Naugatuck River Review and the online journals Eclectica, elimae, failbetter, Wicked Alice, web del sol, and  The November 3rd Club. I also write posts for Poetry Internationals weblog.