signs of peace

We’ve mentioned the poet/artist Robert Montgomery a couple of times before (here and here) and are happy to see that he has launched a new project, Paper Peace.
Created with outdoor arts company Emergency Exit Arts, Paper Peace is an illuminated mobile billboard that will travel through England for a full year beginning on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. Along the way, the team will gather stories, pledges, and poems of peace for a National Peace Archive.

In addition, through the Paper Peace Young Producers program, “48 people across the country aged 18 to 25 will receive training from arts practitioners and museum experts in curatorial and event production, learning to interpret a variety of historical sources from the past century and connecting with peace building heritage in their local area. The Young Producers will collaborate with professional artists to help realise their ideas and create a series of artworks that will form part of the Paper Peace finale events in autumn 2019.”

Read more about Paper Peace.

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Reasons to go to… San Francisco

If you’re interested in poetry, in language, then on some level you interact with letters. Not the epistolary kind, but the alphabetic kind. And if the shape, variety, history, or possibility of letters interests you, make an appointment to visit the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. A nonprofit center for inspiration, education, publishing, and community, the Letterform Archive hosts visits and public events, and serves a global community through social media, state-of-the-art photography, and publications. They offer courses and workshops in type design, calligraphy, and typography, they curate exhibitions, organize lectures by visiting artists and designers, and host salons and receptions to showcase collections or celebrate out-of-town guests. Go.

and speaking of museums…

There are two museums to mark the parentheses of Arthur Rimbaud’s short life. One is in Charleville-Mézières, France, where the poet was born (above), and the other in Harar, Ethiopia, (below) where he spent ten years just prior to his death at age 37. The French edifice is not to be confused with the poet’s childhood home in Roche, which was purchased last year by Patti Smith.

the next time you’re in D.C.

…stop by to see what’s on exhibit at the American Poetry Museum. A space for exhibitions and education centered on the subject of American poetry, the Museum collects objects, presents events and educational poetry writing workshops, and hosts exhibits of art, photography, and video about different subject matter using poetry as a tool for discussion.

Visit APM in person, online, and on Facebook.

picturing regional history

If you’re inspired by history or looking for some visual prompts for your poetry, pay an online visit to the Washington Rural Heritage Collections of the Washington State Library. The Collections provide free access to digitized primary sources documenting the early culture, industry, and community life of Washington State. 152 cultural institutions have participated in the project and there’s a link to the archive for each one on this page. It’s a fascinating and surprisingly personal collection.

. . . . .
photo: U.S.S. Constitution “Old Ironsides anchored outside of Jim Crow Creek on the Columbia River. She is a three-masted sailing ship build in 1797 at the Edmund Hartt’s Shipyard in Boston, Massachusetts. Said to have never lost a battle, she can currently be seen in Boston at the Constitution Museum. Masts were 200 feet high, wooden hull. Jim Crow Creek is located in Section 4, Township 9N, Range 7W and is upstream from the mouth of the Columbia River. The ship went from Longview, Washington on August 24 to San Francisco, California on August 31, 1933; this period is likely when this photograph was taken.”

untitled*

2018 Merit Award
By Bonnita Lynne

It is more difficult
to maintain perspective
in a city.

In the rural Southwest
are the mesas
with the footpaths of The Old Ones
worn in the rock;

and when I see them
and touch them
I remember

that this two weeks
and these months
are not the only thing
that is.

. . . . .
*Copyright 2018 by Bonnita Lynne. Broadside illustrated by Megan Carroll.

on poetry

“Poetry is for the inner ear.”
Vachel Lindsay
(November 10, 1879 – December 5, 1931)

. . . . .
photo
quoted in A Poet in America by Edgar Lee Masters