by Erica Mauter • Saint Paul’s sidewalk poetry project, Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk, is now being installed on the streets of Saint Paul. You’ll recall there was a contest earlier this year for Saint Paul residents to submit poetry for the project.
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The winners have since been selected (20 winners and 14 honorable mentions out of more than 2000 entries) and the poems encased in concrete across the city. There’s a slideshow with the winning poems and photos of various stages of the creation process and locations where the poems can be found. You can also order it in book form for $20.
The Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation blog points to a Christian Science Monitor article on the project. Saint Paul public artist in residence and coordinator of this project, Marcus Young, says:
“If you’re a kid growing up around here, maybe you ride your bike by and notice it and say, ‘Let’s meet near the poem.’ Or, ‘Let’s use the poem for second base.’ It gets folded into your life.” He continued, “Or maybe there’s a word, like tulle, which you don’t know when you’re in third grade. And then in eighth grade, you learn about the word, and you understand the poem in a different way.”
Check the map. Are there any in your neck of the woods?
Wow, Saint Paul. Poetry on the sidewalks. Crazy traffic-calming street signs. What next?
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