They offered to buy our mailing list and instead of selling the list I suggested we'd give them an important section of it if they'd agree to keep our publication in their window for a period of time. In addition, they will soon schedule some festival-curated readings. The benefits of collaborating can also be seen in the depth of The Poetry Center's reading series. Our organization is perceived, I think, as having a lot of funding when, in fact, the thing we can contribute most successfully, and the thing many presenters really need, is a good publicity 'machine' to get the audiences out. It is with these combined efforts that one finds East Coast writers like Mark Doty and Lucille Clifton reading in the Bay Area.
Collaborations can also lead to additional venues for writers to perform.
This often makes it more feasible for writers to travel longer distances. By further collaborating with the Nu Upper Room as our choice of venue, we included an 18-25 year old audience. Also by collaborating we increased our people power as far as staff committed to make the project work. As it turns out, the success of the event was so great that an additional reading by Amiri Baraka was necessary to accommodate the unexpected number of people in attendance. When collaborations are successfully formed a heightened sense of community can be felt.