The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA) is pleased to announce that in 2009 it will feature poetry by local youth on Regional Transportation District (RTD) buses as part of the Poetry in Motion program. The Poetry in Motion® program places poem placards in vacant advertising space on buses. Since 2008, the Denver program has featured poems by eight local poets, including Denver’s current Poet Laureate Chris Ransick and former Denver Poet Laureate Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado. Poem placards rotate every few months through 800 buses.Local nonprofits Lighthouse Writers Workshop and Art from Ashes worked with young poets to develop submissions for the 2009 Poetry in Motion program. To date, four young poets have been selected, including Katie Foster, aged 16, Lena Novins-Montague, aged 10, and Claire Trainor, aged 13, from the Lighthouse Writers program and Dominic Perez, aged 20, from Art from Ashes. Their poems will be featured on buses beginning in April, in conjunction with Poetry Month.
Four additional youth poets will be selected later this year to participate in the program. Youth interested in being considered should contact Lighthouse Writers Workshop or Art from Ashes to learn more about their ongoing workshops for youth writers.
Let's make sure some of our wonderful young gay poets here in Denver get their work seen.
“The Poetry in Motion program allows Denver citizens to be touched by art in their everyday lives, adding a little poetic inspiration to their transit experience,” said Mayor John Hickenlooper. In addition to making the bus ride a more pleasurable and enlightening experience, the program promotes appreciation of poetry and provides support and exposure to local poets.
Inspired by a similar program in the London Underground, Poetry in Motion was developed by the Poetry Society of America and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit in 1992. The program currently reaches over 13 million Americans daily. Denver is the 15th U.S. city to participate in the program. For more information, visit www.poetrysociety.org.
The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs will publish a free calendar of April Poetry Month activities. To have your poetry event included in the calendar, visit www.denvergov.org/poetry.
