This week, we focused on getting to know each other and the team. This means scheduling meetings, introducing myself and being introduced to the organization, and catching my footing within the internship role. I familiarized myself with Lostintheletters, learning about its mission, history, and event program–including the annual letters festival and a quarterly reading and workshop series, which I am very excited for. In the past, the organization has hosted Jericho Brown, Susan Steinberg, and many other awesome creatives and poets; I’m hoping to meet a few, or at the very least, help to organize the festival for their visit/collaboration.
The preliminary meeting was on Friday, and we discussed first steps. A very exciting part of this will be getting my own Lostintheletters email address! There are a few events lined up, so we discussed what those include, as well as our first intern assignments. I am going to be working on press releases for the quarterly workshop on February 22nd, specifically on creating a template and compiling a mailing list (with places like arts atl). I will also be focusing on outreach. As a GSU student, and since Lostintheletters isn’t officially affiliated to the school, I think it will be smart to concentrate on students who would be interested in the organization. I have a few ideas about how to do this: posters (and stickers) around campus, using the PIN network as per the suggestion of my fellow intern, and reaching out to various creative writing and literature clubs to spread the word about Lostintheletters and our mission. This outreach is more about talking to individuals and is meant to be on a more personal level than the press release.
We spoke a bit about the upcoming event and I’m super thrilled to go to it and help set up. Claire Batement is the guest author and she’s going to be leading a generative prose workshop, meaning the attendees will have time to generate work on the spot after learning from the workshop. We also talked about some peripheral programs that the organization has been working on, including an interactive MARTA art-bound initiative and a tree atl collaborative project. Both sound cool and I hope I get to work on them at some point this semester! Overall, my work within Lostintheletters and the organization itself is focused on building a bridge between the Atlanta creative communities and surrounding communities, and encouraging people to focus on art and fellowship. I’m grateful for the opportunity and I’m ready to get started!
