In 1990, Joshua Blum met Bob Holman at the Nuyorican Poets Café, where Holman had helped popularize slam poetry. Despite Holman's initial aversion to the idea of television, Blum convinced him to make a demo for MTV featuring 40 local poets called "Smokin' Word". The concept was to bring the production values of high-end music videos and experimental television to poetry for the purpose of "not selling anything". Smokin' Word was co-directed by Joel Blumsack and Rick Reta, and hosted by Matthew Courtney. MTV rejected the project, but when the team added Pellington as director, a third producer, Terri McCoy, brought the show to Public Television's "Alive TV", who greenlit the idea for a single program Words in Your Face. Words in Your Face which aired in 1991, served as a stylistic demo for the United States of Poetry, and was widely considered a breakthrough in merging poetry and television.[6]
In 1992, Blum, Holman, and Pellington began working on a proposal that would expand the scope of Words in Your Face to a national scale. While Words in Your Face was centered on artists from New York City's East Village, The United States of Poetry would travel the country to showcase the diverse voices of America through its living poets. The plan was for the poets to collaborate with the filmmakers on the visualization of their poems.[6]
The project received developmental funding from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Greenwall Foundation. In 1993, the team brought the pitch to Independent Television Service (ITVS). ITVS liked the pitch for its geographical diversity and grass roots appeal, and funded the project as a five part limited series. Additional funding came from the National Endowment for the Arts and from Fillmore Mercantile.[6]
In April 1994, Blum, Holman, Pellington, and a crew of twelve, including Co-producer Anne Mullen and Director of Photography Tom Krueger set off on a twelve-week 13,400 mile-trip on a pink and magenta tour bus to film 90 poets, 60 of which were selected for the program.[6]