Cambridge is pleased to announce the launch of our new Sidewalk Poetry Program & Contest! We invite you to submit your poems to the first ever Sidewalk Poetry Contest, designed to stamp poems written by Cambridge residents into freshly poured sidewalk locations throughout the City. A collaboration of the Department of Public Works, Cambridge Arts, and the Cambridge Public Library, the Sidewalk Poetry Program will launch with a Poetry Contest to collect and select poems from Cambridge residents to be imprinted in local sidewalks in 2015.
The Cambridge Sidewalk Poetry Program was inspired by a similar ongoing program in St. Paul, Minnesota, begun in 2008 by artist Marcus Young as artist-in-residence in the St. Paul Department of Public Works.
Any Cambridge resident of any age is invited to submit up to two poems to the 2015 Sidewalk Poetry Contest. Poems will be reviewed by a selection committee composed of representatives from Cambridge Public Works, Cambridge Public Library, and Cambridge Arts, as well as a former Poet Populist and a Cambridge high school student.
The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, April 12, 2015. Winners will be announced on Thursday, April 30, 2015. We envision that the 2015 Poetry Contest will be followed by yearly competitions and a growing collection of citizen sidewalk poems to be discovered throughout Cambridge neighborhoods.
For more information on submission guidelines and how to submit poems, please visit www.cambridgema.gov/sidewalkpoetry.