Sidewalk Poetry Project
Thanks to Cambridge Arts for letting us use their process for Sidewalk Poetry.
Beverly Main Streets | Beverly Arts District is launching our Sidewalk Poetry Project, thanks to a grant from the Mass Cultural Council, a grant from the Beverly Cultural Council, and our partner the City of Beverly. Residents (and current college students) were invited to submit poetry for the chance to get their words stamped in concrete!
Sidewalk Poetry is coming to downtown!
We’re really excited to announce the 4 winners and 4 runners-up of the 2020 Sidewalk Poetry contest. The winners’ poems will be embedded in sidewalk panels on the new stretch of Cabot Street in November 2021, thanks to Mayor Cahill and the city’s Planning Department and Department of Public Services.
We had 61 entries so we want to thank everyone who submitted a poem. We also want to thank the partners in this project who made this happen – the City of Beverly, Beverly Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council.
Drum roll…
The 4 winners are Nick DiSalvatore (“last rite”), Tobey Archibald (“Sidewalk Instead”), Dawn Paul (“I Fetch Water”) and Aly Pierce (“Analemma”). Congrats! They receive a stipend and their poems will soon be permanently on the sidewalk!
The 4 runners-up are Cathryn O’Hare (“November Poem”), Margaret Young (“Low Tide”), Cathleen Warren (“Morning, Prospect Hill”) and Stephanie Angelini (“Essex County”). Congrats! They will have their poems promoted on social and on a display that we’re making to be located in a public spot once we’re in Phase 4 of re-opening.
We’d also like to thank our esteemed selection panel:
• Colleen Michaels (published poet and college professor)
• January O’Neil (published poet and college professor)
• Kevin Carey (published poet and college professor)
• Dan Calnan (Endicott College senior and editor-in-chief of the College Review)
• Alison McCarthy (actor and member of Beverly Cultural Council)
• Cindy Veach (published poet)
• Zaruga Philips (Montserrat College of Art student and writer)
• Naisha Tatis (Salem State University freshman student from Beverly who helped organize the Black Lives Matter march in Beverly)
• Joscelyn Ruelle Kersker (Constituent Services and Projects Coordinator for City of Beverly)
Winning Poems
Runner up Poems
Why we love Sidewalk Poetry!
Sidewalk poetry aligns with our Downtown 2030 goal to build on Downtown 2020 achievements and demonstrate ongoing celebration of local arts, culture and history as drivers of our downtown economic prosperity.
SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED
Applications for the 2020 Sidewalk Poetry Project were accepted until September 30, 2020 at 5pm. We highly encouraged submissions from underrepresented voices including, but not limited to, women poets, poets of color and LGBTQ+ poets.
SUBMISSION RULES
1. Poets must be a current resident or a current college student of Beverly, Massachusetts.
2. Beverly residents or current college students of ANY age are eligible.
3. Poets may submit ONE poem of their own work. Text and subject matter must be appropriate for the general public.
4. Poems may be in any language but must be accompanied by an English translation.
5. The submitted poems may be published or unpublished, as long as they are the original work of the applicant, the applicant owns the rights to the poem, and the applicant has the right to allow third parties to publish the poems.
6. Poems may be a maximum of 9 lines in length with up to 40 characters per line including spaces. The title may be 1 line in length with up to 40 characters per line including spaces. Poems may be no more than 250 characters total overall including titles, spaces and punctuation. (This means you will not be able to use all 10 lines of 40 characters each, but you could have 10 lines of 20 characters each for example.)
8. By submitting this poem, you are attesting that this is an original work of poetry and that you are its rightful author or authorized representative. Note that we will check all poems for plagiarism.
9. Applicants will retain full copyright of their poems; however, by applying for this project, poets agree that, if selected, Beverly Main Streets, Beverly Arts District, and the City of Beverly may use and/or print the poems as many times and in as many locations as they wish, and may also use the poems, and images of the installed poems, in whole or in part for promotional, documentary, and/or celebratory purposes.
10. The deadline to submit a poem is September 30, 2020 at 5pm. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Please contact info@beverlymainstreets.org
Here are a few examples from Cambridge Arts:
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Beverly Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.