Union County Poetry?

I am in the preliminary planning stages of starting a project in Union County to bring poetry to the local community. Since I've gotten this chapbook published, I've relized how completely devoid of such things my county is. In order to successfully market it, one must go to readings, where (hopefully) the audience members would be interested in purchasing said chap. There are zero readings in Union County, and only 3 per month in Mecklenburg county. I realized that I'd have to travel to readings in the Greensboro area in order to do this. In all honesty, such travel doesn't fit into any feasible schedule for me.

And so, with my chapbook sales now basically an internet based effort, I've decided to endeavor to make this easier for future writers by engaging my community in poetry, creating monthly readings in places like the local library. I'd also love to incorporate, somehow, high school students, possibly creating a monthly publication, or even sponsoring chapbooks or anthologies that included their work. Another idea I had was to create a yearly anthology for the stories (in poetry) of the women in the local battered women's shelter.

My publisher and her corporation would like to co-sponsor me in my efforts, and even pointed me in the direction of some grants that I could apply for in order to help make this happen.

To be honest, at the moment, I'm completely excited by the prospect of the possibilities, and overwhelmed by the amount of planning and such that this will require. So, as I said, I'm in the preliminary stages, basically doing some research for the grant applications, and finding all the right information about who to contact in order to make this work. I think the highschool aspect will have to be added in later, and I'll begin by advertising for a poetry workshop reading/sharing type of event, most likely using myself and Poetic Acceptance (ugh) as the initial selling point to interest people.

Now, we'll see if this goes anywhere...