October 5

Poetry Paths, our innovative poetry and public art project, has reached critical mass with pieces now installed at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Tabor Community Services, Lancaster Public Library, Bright Side Opportunities Center, Spanish American Civic Association’s El Centro Hispano, Clipper Magazine Stadium, and Fulton Theatre.

In celebration of our progress, we invite you and your families and friends to a free, public celebration of Poetry Paths.

fun music, free food, and free pencils!

From 3:00-5:00 pm, come to the Ware Center, 42 North Prince Street, for your Poetry Paths Map and Kids Poetry Paths Kit, and then walk or drive to each of our completed sites, where volunteers will stamp your map and give you an insider’s tour of the artwork.

From 6:00-8:00 pm at the Ware Center, please join us and the many people who have helped create the Paths for a free, public celebration featuring music by Vinegar Creek Constituency; food by Prince Street Café, Carmen & David’s Ice Cream, and Wendy Jo’s Homemade; mixing and mingling with our artists and writers, and the announcement of the winners of our Make Your Own Poetry Paths Art Project Contest, co-sponsored by Creative Works of Lancaster. Mayor Rick Gray and President Porterfield will speak.

On Friday, March 2 at 5 pm, Poetry Paths will join the Lancaster Public Library to mark the installation of this artful bench by SALT Design Studio and collaborator Brooklyn-based artist Erin Gleason featuring the poetry of Emily Dickinson. 

Guests at the event will include the Library’s Executive Director Herb Landau and Community Relations Coordinator Heather Sharpe and the other members of the two selection committees who chose the poetry and art: Cordelia Moyse and Stacey Youcis, Friends of the Library, and Pedro Rivera, Superintendent of the School District of Lancaster.

Students from the Writers House, including our Poetry Paths interns and students who led a creative writing workshop at the library last fall as part of a community-based learning course at Franklin & Marshall, will join our staff to represent Poetry Paths. Laura Howell of the People’s Shakespeare Project will read the Dickinson poem, and artist Sara Pevaroff Schuh of SALT Design Studio will be present to say hello and take questions. Guest of honor Congressman Joseph R. Pitts will conclude the brief ceremony.

Please join us TONIGHT at the Ware Center, 42 North Prince Street in downtown Lancaster, for a poetry reading and poetry slam, from 5-8pm, co-hosted by students from the Creative Writing Guild at Millersville University, the community of the Writers House at Franklin & Marshall College, and Poetry Paths.

Below is an excerpt from our Fall 2011 newsletter. To read it in full and view images, please click here.

Dear Friends,

Hi from Poetry Paths!  We are delighted to have news to share.  As many of you may know, we had planned to host a launch party on Friday, November 4 to introduce the original artwork featuring poetry that is being installed at various sites in Lancaster as part of the Paths.

Alas, many of the projects, while well underway, will not be completed by November 4.  We expect that we’ll have about two thirds of the pieces installed by December of 2011, with the rest of the projects going in during the spring and summer of 2012.

The good news is that the project has taken longer than we’d expected because of our commitment to a process that foregrounds community engagement.  The teams helping to bring each site’s artwork to life include dozens of people, including selection committee members, site partners, publishers, neighbors, artists, designers, lawyers, donors, advisors, poets, machinists, stone masons, painters, and more.

While we won’t be able to officially launch until 2012, we still want to have a party on our planned date of November 4.  Please join us at the Ware Center, 42 North Prince Street in downtown Lancaster, for a poetry reading and poetry slam, from 5-8pm, co-hosted by students from the Creative Writing Guild at Millersville University, the community of the Writers House at Franklin & Marshall College, and Poetry Paths.   If you’d like to read at either the open reading or the slam, please email astrid.barreras@fandm.edu, joanna.underhill@fandm.edu and susancheriebeam@gmail.com.

Click here to continue reading about our progress with Poetry Paths in the Schools and Poetry Paths on the Street.