Founded in Philadelphia in 1983, the American Poetry Center was a nonprofit cultural center that broadened access to poetry through statewide programming, public events, and literary exchange. Developed by Margaret Chew Barringer and chaired for its first decade by Jerome J. Shestack, it became especially influential through Poetry Month in Pennsylvania, which helped shape the later model for National Poetry Month. The organization also hosted prominent writers, organized widely noted symposia, led a pioneering six-year exchange with the USSR Union of Writers, and built literary infrastructure through publications, hotlines, collections, and youth programs. In 2005, it became American INSIGHT while continuing the same mission through new digital methods.