Seventeen Keys Writers Win Concrete Immortality in Key West Sidewalk Poetry Project 2013

 
 
Portion of a St. Paul Every Day Poems for City Sidewalks entry by Anna Renken. The entire poem, titled Cutout Sky, reads: "Cut the trees out of the sky with your silver scissors. Tear the rain from the faint shapes of bruised clouds with your open hands. Weave the thin strands of rain through the branches like pearls melting against dark silhouettes." Soon, Key West sidewalks will be similarly stamped with the words of Keys writers.

Portion of a St. Paul Every Day Poems for City Sidewalks entry by Anna Renken. The entire poem, titled Cutout Sky, reads: “Cut the trees out of the sky with your silver scissors. Tear the rain from the faint shapes of bruised clouds with your open hands. Weave the thin strands of rain through the branches like pearls melting against dark silhouettes.” Soon, Key West sidewalks will be similarly stamped with the words of Keys writers.

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Seventeen Keys writers have won a $ 100 cash prize and the distinction of having their words and names immortalized in concrete along selected walkways throughout Key West.

In July, the Key West Art in Public Places Board issued an invitation for writers to submit short works for the Key West Sidewalk Poetry Project 2013, the first of what is to be an annual competition. The competition was inspired by a similar one launched in St. Paul, MN, several years ago.

“Public Art is traditionally thought of as only sculptural or visual murals,” said Michael Shields, Board Chair for Art in Public Places. “This project expands our understanding (literally) to give poets their own palette, on our pavements, and to lift the reader to see the world anew.”

A three-person jury composed of individuals selected from the Florida Keys literary community reviewed more than 200 submissions in a blind judging process.

Key West Sidewalk Poetry Project 2013 winners are: Eden Brown, Margit Bisztray, Fran Decker, Mark Faris, Frieda Feldman, Constance Gilbert, Diane Good, Jennifer Grafiada, Mark Hedden, Janet Marston-Hartwell, Marsh Muirhead, David Sloan, D. Sullins Stuart, Mary Jo Trible, Jonathan Woods, and the youngest winning competitor—Montessori student Isabella Braswell. Each year, one notable poet is to participate outside the jury process. Key West Poet Laureate Kirby Congdon was selected for that honor in 2013. All of the winning entries may be viewed online at artinpublicplaceskw.com.

“Since Key West embedded me, I love knowing a few of my words will be embedded in Key West,” commented winning writer Margit Bisztray. “This is such a great way to become part of the island, like the island became part of me.”

Next step for the winning poems is to be manufactured into plates or stamps. On a date to be announced before year’s end, the community will be invited to witness the public stamping of the first poem. Then, as the City goes about its continuous operations of pouring new or replacing broken, cracked, or fractured sidewalks, the other winning entries will be etched into select pavers, creating moments of plein-air reading for residents and visitors—a synergy of literary and visual art.

The Key West Art in Public Places Board strives to foster an environment that honors, celebrates and demonstrates the value of artistic expression in the public view, in the visual, literary and performing arts. The Key West Sidewalk Poetry Project 2013 is produced in cooperation with the City of Key West’s Community Services Department and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

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Kirby Congdon

Key West Poet Laureate Selection:

I walk on sand

and leave a trail

of footprints,

hard and deep.

The wash of waves

fills my step

in hasty cascades.

Water and sand return,

not quite the same;

the tide, its oceans,

the earth itself

are changed.