[title]
Need more poetry in your life? It’s here, all over New York City!
NYC Parks and The Poetry Society of America have teamed up to offer poetry installations in public parks throughout all five boroughs in a new initiative called “Park Poems.”
The installations, which transform poetry into works of public art, will be up all year and offer visitors the opportunity to interact with poetry in a beautiful, open space. The poems focus on the theme of “reflection,” inviting parkgoers to pause and contemplate.
RECOMMENDED: NYC is trying to introduce ‘tranquility’ at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge
"Our public parks are important oases amid the hustle of New York City life, and these poetry installations will invite park patrons to pause, reflect, and connect with their environment in new ways,” NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said in a news release. "Making beautiful poetry accessible to New Yorkers in all five boroughs fits perfectly with our mission at NYC Parks, and I am grateful to The Poetry Society of America for their partnership on this project.”
In this first year of the project, the Poetry Society and NYC Parks are displaying poems in five public parks, with poetry selected from writers all around the globe:
- The Bronx’s Clason Point Park: “Twilight” by W.S. Merwin
- Red Hook, Brooklyn’s Valentino Pier Park: “I Was Never Able to Pray” by Edward Hirsch
- Harlem’s Sunken Playground (at West 167th St. and Park Ave.): “Oscura luz / Dark Light” by Francisco X. Alarcón, in both Spanish and English
- Staten Island’s Clove Lakes Park: “我坐在這裡 / I Sit Here” by Liu Xia in Chinese and English
- Whitestone, Queens’ Francis Lewis Park: “Six Tankas” by Harryette Mullen.
"Literature is the most democratic art form, and when we place poems in public spaces, we affirm that democratic spirit, creating opportunities for people from all backgrounds to encounter imaginative language in unexpected and intimate ways,” said Matt Brogan, Executive Director of The Poetry Society of America. “Nowhere is that promise more abundant than in our public parks.”
