History of Poetry Month
National poetry month was started in 1996 after the Academy of American Poets were inspired by the success of Black history month in February. It is celebrated every April in the United States and in 1999 it was started in Canada. In 2000 Great Britain started to celebrate a National Poetry Month in October. Americans in America that are interested in poetry month strive to gain awareness by writing on sidewalks like we are doing in our class or attending poetry readings. Book stores hold poetry reading to boost sales and interact with other poets to gain saliency to poetry month and to raise money to support poetry month. In 1996 President Bill Clinton set April to be the month to gain awareness to the literary voices of poetry. He was hoping to spark a new generation of creative writing and enrich the culture with poetry. In attempts to raise money to support the month the Academy organized the first Poetry and the Creative Mind gala to raise funds in support of National Poetry Month