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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — How would you like to be published on city buses, on downtown street corners, or on coasters at local restaurants?
The new Western Colorado Writers' Forum is launching its first project — “Poetry on the Streets” with a meeting at the central library Sunday from 2-4 p.m.
Sandy Dorr, director and founder of the Writers' Forum, will announce and give details of a poetry contest in which winners will see their work artistically displayed around downtown Grand Junction and on Grand Valley Transit buses. Deadline for entering the poetry contest is April 30.
Poetry will be sprinkled throughout downtown to dress up sides of newspaper boxes, and other corners of downtown.
And while having a drink downtown, you could be treated to a poem when you lift your glass. Poems will be printed on 6,000 coasters that will be in 25 downtown restaurants.
Winning poems will be placed inside city buses in April, then rotated in September. Downtown poems will be installed in time for a First Friday Art Walk during the summer.
The city's Art on the Corner committee will work with chosen poets to visually design the seven poems chosen for downtown. Each poem will be designed by a different artist. The Main Street poems will become the property of Art on the Corner, and will be produced, installed and maintained by the DDA.
Art on the Corner coordinator Felicia Sabartinelli said she's excited to add more art and culture to downtown.
“This is the pilot season. It has a lot of potential,” Sabartinelli said.
“Poetry in the Streets is a project to visually affirm the local poets here, promote and distribute their work, and awaken our community to the voices of writers in the Grand Valley,” Dorr said.
The Sunday meeting at the library, “A Conversation with Writers,” is also an opportunity for writers to contribute ideas of what they'd want from a regional writing center.
The mission of the Writers' Forum is to become a regional center that promotes literary arts, supports individual writers, and educates and develops an audience for literature and culture. Currently, the center hosts two semester-long writing workshops and brings in visiting writers.
Writers' Forum classes and events take place at a beautiful old former church at 800 Colorado Ave.
The Writers' Forum is a Colorado nonprofit with a board of directors which so far includes writers Peggy Utesch and Karen Galloway, former Mesa State College Dean of Humanities Janine Rider, MSC English professor Luis Lopez, and board president Eve Tallman, Director Mesa County Libraries.
Dorr said they hope to host writers and writing groups of many kinds and ages.
The Western Colorado Writers' Forum received a $1,900 grant from the Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture for the poetry in the streets project. The winning poets, judges and artist Martha McCoy, who will help design how the poems are displayed, will be paid for their work, Dorr said.
Four local poets, all published writers, will judge the poems: Wendy Videlock, Danny Rosen, Luis Lopez and Dorr. The winners will be invited to read their works April 30 at 800 Colorado Ave.
The judges will choose 11 original and 13 classic poems (available within the public domain) to appear in public places. Each of the judges will contribute a poem as well.
The judges will look for shorter poems that reflect the diversity, landscape and culture of the Grand Valley, Dorr said.
The new Western Colorado Writers' Forum is launching its first project — “Poetry on the Streets” with a meeting at the central library Sunday from 2-4 p.m.
Sandy Dorr, director and founder of the Writers' Forum, will announce and give details of a poetry contest in which winners will see their work artistically displayed around downtown Grand Junction and on Grand Valley Transit buses. Deadline for entering the poetry contest is April 30.
Poetry will be sprinkled throughout downtown to dress up sides of newspaper boxes, and other corners of downtown.
And while having a drink downtown, you could be treated to a poem when you lift your glass. Poems will be printed on 6,000 coasters that will be in 25 downtown restaurants.
Winning poems will be placed inside city buses in April, then rotated in September. Downtown poems will be installed in time for a First Friday Art Walk during the summer.
The city's Art on the Corner committee will work with chosen poets to visually design the seven poems chosen for downtown. Each poem will be designed by a different artist. The Main Street poems will become the property of Art on the Corner, and will be produced, installed and maintained by the DDA.
Art on the Corner coordinator Felicia Sabartinelli said she's excited to add more art and culture to downtown.
“This is the pilot season. It has a lot of potential,” Sabartinelli said.
“Poetry in the Streets is a project to visually affirm the local poets here, promote and distribute their work, and awaken our community to the voices of writers in the Grand Valley,” Dorr said.
The Sunday meeting at the library, “A Conversation with Writers,” is also an opportunity for writers to contribute ideas of what they'd want from a regional writing center.
The mission of the Writers' Forum is to become a regional center that promotes literary arts, supports individual writers, and educates and develops an audience for literature and culture. Currently, the center hosts two semester-long writing workshops and brings in visiting writers.
Writers' Forum classes and events take place at a beautiful old former church at 800 Colorado Ave.
The Writers' Forum is a Colorado nonprofit with a board of directors which so far includes writers Peggy Utesch and Karen Galloway, former Mesa State College Dean of Humanities Janine Rider, MSC English professor Luis Lopez, and board president Eve Tallman, Director Mesa County Libraries.
Dorr said they hope to host writers and writing groups of many kinds and ages.
The Western Colorado Writers' Forum received a $1,900 grant from the Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture for the poetry in the streets project. The winning poets, judges and artist Martha McCoy, who will help design how the poems are displayed, will be paid for their work, Dorr said.
Four local poets, all published writers, will judge the poems: Wendy Videlock, Danny Rosen, Luis Lopez and Dorr. The winners will be invited to read their works April 30 at 800 Colorado Ave.
The judges will choose 11 original and 13 classic poems (available within the public domain) to appear in public places. Each of the judges will contribute a poem as well.
The judges will look for shorter poems that reflect the diversity, landscape and culture of the Grand Valley, Dorr said.
"The Owl" by Wendy Videlock
Beneath her nest
a shrew's head, a finch's beak and the bones of a quail attest the owl devours the hour, and disregards the rest. |
