the poetry foundation, eli lilly, & the PIC

it is hard to explain the poetry foundation's cultural power.  it's an institution that is both deeply mistrusted and the only of its kind.  online, it's a free and extensive database of poetry that also bears notable omissions in the same white supremacist xenophobic idea of a canon as most american arts and educational institutions.  as a publication, poetry is the kind of magazine many poets throw away upon receiving while secretly daydreaming about appearing in its pages (if for no reason other than its payment at $300/poem).  backed by an unprecedented $200 million donation from ruth lilly--the heir to eli lilly pharmaceuticals--in the early 00s, the foundation has shifted in cultural identity over the past ten years, rolling with a neoliberal subsumption of radical poetics and including a more diverse roster of published poets and awardees.  the end result is a magazine now unrecognizable from issues published just a few years earlier in its hundred-plus year tenure.  the current backlash against the foundation is due to its inclusion of poems in its february 2021 incarcerated poets issue by someone who was incarcerated for child pornography possession and circulation and has a professional history of sexual harassment and violence.  many have already dissected the carceral feminist calls to check the crimes of incarcerated people prior to publication but as someone who is interested in the broader discussion around whether or not poetry magazine could be a site for discussing and upholding abolitionist ideas, i found myself thinking first about eli lilly's place in the prison industrial complex.

ruth lilly's massive donation of eli lilly pharmaceuticals stock to the poetry foundation grew to be valued at about $200 million in 2010.  this was not too long after eli lilly received what the US DOJ then deemed the "largest individual corporate criminal fine in history" for aggressively mismarketing its drug zyprexa for unapproved uses.  to take zyprexa as just one example of the widespread and lethal impact eli lilly has had on incarcerated individuals, here's one lawsuit from a prisoner who jailers forced to take zyprexa even after he asserted that it caused him to develop diabetes (a commonly reported side-effect of the drug & important to note eli lilly's status as a significant producer of insulin--here's their Twitter, "we're all diabetes all the time!").  another article, in examining the "fear"-based overprescription of psychotropic drugs, recounts a prisoner who committed suicide with double the maximum prescription of zyprexa in his system.  

like most pharmaceutical companies, eli lilly was drug testing without oversight on prisoners prior to the FDA intervening in the 70s.  in hearings on "preclinical and clinical testing by the pharmaceutical industry" in 1975, eugene step, then-president of eli lilly, responds to questioning about their practices (381-382):

step emphasizes that the testing is done in lilly's own facilities, as if a facility with no oversight controlled by a pharmaceutical company was a more neutral or harmless place than the prison itself.  even with the development of regulations in 1975 and a general shift toward private sector testing, the same racist classist dehumanization that enabled such a rapid expansion of drug testing on prisoners in the first place is what drives and enables current overmedicalization in all carceral facilities.  ultimately, both operate toward the same end--profit maximization at the expense of people held against their will.

in the 50s & 60s, the cia contracted eli lilly to manufacture lsd for mk ultra.  the late 80s found eli lilly partnering with napalm-producer dow chemicals for a toxic agricultural joint venture.  here's eli lilly ceasing HIV testing in 1994 (the year AIDS becomes the leading cause of death for americans ages 25-44) because they no longer had a "competitive advantage" in producing treatments.  these, however, are sensational moments in a long and ceaseless history of pharmaceutical industry violence that extends far beyond the US & often as a result of US war & imperialism abroad.

in 2010, when ruth lilly's donation was valued at $200 million for the poetry foundation, the annual revenue of eli lilly was over $23 billion.  in an article in the chicago tribune in 2011, as the poetry foundation looked toward the opening of its building  john barr (pofo president 2004-2013) remarks, "...the grand experiment here was to throw money into this art form that had no history of making money and see if poetry would be OK at the end of the day." as u can see the sheer power & radical potential of this art form is not lost on john barr, former managing director at morgan stanley.

operating with a stipulation that only 4.5-5.5% of their net assets can be expended a year to account for inflation & maintain the trust, the poetry foundation's most recent audited financial statement on their website shows investments (which they are not transparent about) grew their assets by about 12% which is more than enough to safeguard against inflation.  poetry magazine & their website are essentially a cheap front for this investment-bolstered money hoard that is always going to prioritize its own financial security over any kind of broader community initiatives because it is literally written into the function of the foundation.  things like this call for the poetry foundation to donate $5 million to poets at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic thus are impossible for the foundation to fulfill even though it would be the mechanism by which it contributes to its mission to "raise poetry to a more visible and influential position in our culture."  accompanied by lack of concrete aid and during a crisis that is significantly more lethal for people of color, disabled people, and poor people, this ideology prioritizes and sustains a white ableist upper class poetics.  anyway, here are some poems of protest, resistance and empowerment from the poetry foundation in case you're having trouble paying medical bills.

part of what the foundation does in forcing its money to only go through its own programming channels is to not make a presence for poetry in culture but for Poetry in culture--to establish itself as the hegemonic voice for poetry. while many smaller magazines and presses will inevitably cease publication after the devastating impact of the pandemic, poetry magazine--which operates at a loss for the foundation every year--holds strong backed by the safe-guarded endowment.  instead of sustaining other parts of the literary community, the foundation absorbs them into things like an incarcerated poets special issue, another stop on a long history in capitalizing off of diversity and marginalized communities (it was less than a year ago poets were attacking the foundation for its spineless and empty statement on the George Floyd protests) while functionally silencing them by distributing wealth only in the form of "educational programs" and large monetary windfalls to a select few.

there's something to consider, too, in the way that only investing in its own programs keeps the eli lilly brand name alive & redeemed.  the cornerstones of the poetry foundation's lottery system are the ruth lilly prize ($100k to an established poet) and the ruth lilly and dorothy sargeant rosenberg prizes ($25k to a poet under the age of 31), both of which become yearly topical cesspools for infighting amongst poets who--to once again return to that lovely statement by big bozo john barr--have no history of making any sort of money with their art.  the foundation's greatest community contribution might be a kind of quarterly injection of bitterness, contention, & controversy into the poetry community that keeps it distracted from addressing the larger systemic issues of this foundation's very existence.  that said, feel free to drop ur fave bigoted poetry foundation microscandal in the comments below.

the actual ambitions & functionality of the poetry foundation were made very clear in 2011 when it opened a $22 million glass headquarters in a wealthy & out of the way part of chicago.  it was to be a center for the elevation and appreciation of poetry--a poetry library open exclusively during working hours that held patrolling security guards, volumes of poetry you could not check out, and wine & cheese affairs to celebrate a series of distinguished white visiting poets whose work hit like an ambien after a rough day of insider trading.  at one of the first events in the space, a young white poet was arrested for "causing a scene" during a reading.  this account details how representatives from the foundation showed up at the trial to ensure prosecution.  i am reminded again of the foundation's mission statement--all of the things it says about sustaining poetry, without ever saying a word about sustaining poets.

in all of this the poetry foundation carries out the greatest ambition of eli lilly--to protect & grow its assets at the expense of anything that might be deemed a community & to use philanthropy as a shield for wealth built on the misfortune and exploitation of the rest of the world.  as pharmaceuticals save the world so does poetry!  as long as hundreds of millions sit in the investments of the poetry foundation, the only poetry i want 2 read is the reporting on our bank heist--the greatest love poem of all.

p.s. im deeply indebted in thought 2 my partner in poetry crimes cean & gratitude also 2 timmy, mahroh, & yuni of my reading group for sharing thoughts.  INCITE's book on the nonprofit industrial complex has greatly informed how i understand the way art money flows.