File 028884
Email Chain: Poetry in America Project Funding Proposal (File 028884)
Email correspondence between Elisa New and Jeffrey E. regarding a $500,000 funding proposal for a Poetry in America documentary project at Harvard University, including interviews with prominent public figures.
Summary
Elisa New requests approval to write a funding proposal for $500,000 to support post-production and distribution of a Poetry in America documentary covering American poetry from 1914-1945 (Modernism period). The project includes planned interviews and footage with multiple notable individuals and aims to produce three television episodes in collaboration with HarvardX and WGBH. New proposes structuring the donation as a gift to Harvard University's EdLabs initiative to provide tax benefits while maintaining discretion over fund disbursement.
From: Lisa NewSent: 10/27/2014 5:09:58 PMTo: jeffrey E. [jeeyacation@gmail.com]Subject: Re: writing up proposalImportance: HighOkay. Shall I attach budget? Edit the above and send it. Send it to whom? LisaOn Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 11:53 AM, jeffrey E. <jeevacation@gmail.com> wrote:I think the proposal for 500k is optimistic but can't hurt. .On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 9:48 AM, Lisa New <_________________> wrote:Dear Jeffrey,Larry has told me that you and a friend would like to contribute to my project (hallelujah and thank you amillion times, Jeffrey) and that I ought to write up a proposal asking for 500,000. This is wonderful. If thiscomes to pass, the best way for that money to come, I think, is as a gift to Poetry in America, an initiative atEdLabs at Harvard University. This will give me discretion over its disbursement to HarvardX and WGBH,but this will be absolutely be a Harvard gift that will count as Campaign success and from which Harvardwill take some (but not as much)overhead. . So far the best finance people I've met are at EdLabs and they arehappy to manage these funds for me. There are other ways to give me this money that leave Harvard out, butmy understanding is that your friend would like this to be a Harvard gift.Here's a draft of what I'd like to do with that money.I'd like 500,000 to do post-production and distribution of a whole historical period of American poetry(1914-1945 is what I'm thinking—Modernism) and including three episodes of tv.The raw materials for that period include interviews with Bill Clinton (including footage not yet used byWGBH), Peter Gallison, Walter Isaacson, Lena Dunham, Woody Allen (whose lawyers didn't like our releasea while ago, but we're hoping will soften over time), Harrison Ford (still a maybe), Robert Polito, Sarah Kay,Al Filreis, Rafael Campo, Susan Howe, kids from Nantucket High School, kids from Brookline HighSchool, Alfre Woodard, Jane Pickering, Jay Parini, Ray Dalio, Leon Wieseltier, Richard Dawkins and others;and footage shot in Harlem, Greenwich Village, midtown, Chicago, London (if I have the money to hire acrew there; don't now ), at museums including the Fogg, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Frost's house inRipton Vermont and more.This allows the donor to give to a big Harvard Campaign priority, Teaching and Learning , by supportingPoetry in America, allowing me to produce the crucial segment of the online course with the highest (TVquality) production values and so also supplying higher quality video to WGBH as a way also to cut theircosts.Currently, HarvardX skimps (on lighting, for instance--see the Bill Clinton interview) and while WGBHladles money raised by others into everything. I have been pounding away at my friends at WGBH and Iknow that WGBH producer will work with HarvardX if they can give him footage of the right quality. . Thatis, we'll use HarvardX as the backlot for WGBH so as to squeeze three episodes out for 250.This proposal does not include experiments in schools or the curricular development into courses for teachersthat you've seen in other (million dollar ) proposals. But the courses for teachers can't happen before theHOUSE OVERSIGHT 028884footage is developed, and these courses will have as their centerpiece the WGBH episodes, and so thisfunding will make all the rest possible.I can polish this narrative and or edit it, if there are things you think I have wrong.And I can attach a draft budget based on real Harvard numbers (what my Harvard video editor, producer,media manager cost) as well as a draft WGBH budget I'll now go an negotiate with them. Or we can do that ata second stage.Let me know what you think? And when are we reading Whitman together. Why don't we set a date for Febwhen Poetry in America 3: Whitman is running online and we could screen a little video and then have adiscussion around your table with you and some friends?LisaElisa NewPowell M. Cabot Professor of American LiteratureHarvard University148 Barker Center12 Quincy StreetCambridge, MA02138please noteThe information contained in this communication isconfidential, may be attorney-client privileged, mayconstitute inside information, and is intended only forthe use of the addressee. It is the property ofJEEUnauthorized use, disclosure or copying of thiscommunication or any part thereof is strictly prohibitedand may be unlawful. If you have received thiscommunication in error, please notify us immediately byreturn e-mail or by e-mail to jeevacation@gmail.com, anddestroy this communication and all copies thereof,including all attachments. copyright -all rights reservedElisa NewHOUSE OVERSIGHT 028885Powell M. Cabot Professor of American LiteratureHarvard University148 Barker Center12 Quincy StreetCambridge, MA02138HOUSE OVERSIGHT 028886