The Dallas Office of Arts and Culture has officially stepped up its public art game with the launch of the "Sidewalk Poetry Project," an initiative announced just yesterday to pepper the city with poetic expression in the unlikeliest of places - think verses under your Vans as you amble down the avenue. In a boon for local bards and sidewalk connoisseurs alike, this unique undertaking invites Dallas denizens to submit their stanzas for the chance to become a permanent fixture of the urban tapestry.
Entries for the Sidewalk Poetry Project, which opened yesterday, are all about inclusivity and healing, aiming to confront the city's history head-on; Director of the Office of Arts and Culture, Martine Elyse Philippe, is bringing some welcome fervor to the city's commitment to arts, stating that they "are proud to carry out this initiative that gives residents a new way to engage in our public art process and express love for our vibrant city," according to the City of Dallas. And with the spotlight on equity, each poem is set to grace sidewalks at twenty-eight key locations throughout Dallas with the hopes that the city's dynamic narrative will be cast in concrete, quite literally.
These aren't your garden-variety poems either, but works crafted in a novel "2-1-Form," the brainchild of Dallas Poet Laureate Mag Gabbert who's all about people encountering and interacting with a written word that can resonate, transform, in her words, "give everyone the opportunity to write a poem that others might encounter and be changed by," as recounted by the City of Dallas. It's a dual approach to poetry - both intensely personal yet utterly public.
