In just a few months, Dallasites will be able to walk over a poem on the sidewalk that was written by one of their neighbors.
It’s all part of a new Sidewalk Poetry Project launched by Dallas Poet Laureate Mag Gabbert, a poet and assistant professor at Southern Methodist University. Gabbert said she wanted to give North Texans an opportunity to encounter poetry in their everyday lives.
“There's no better way to do that than to physically stamp poems into sidewalks where people will be walking on a daily basis and allow them to have that encounter, and then they can choose if they want to seek out more poetry in the future,” she said.
North Texans with a tie to Dallas can submit their poems until 5 p.m. on Nov. 7 for the chance to see their writing stamped into one of 28 locations across the city. Entrants whose poems are selected will receive a $150 honorarium.
“Each featured installation location will be chosen with a focus on equity and inclusion, and with the intention of addressing and healing past instances of harmful erasure,” according to the project website.
The website states everyone with a tie to Dallas can apply except those who are minors, undergraduates, members of the Public Art Committee or employees of the city of Dallas and their spouses.
Gabbert encourages submissions from those who want to be involved in the Dallas art community and want to commemorate a part of the city. She also invites “people who have encountered difficulties or challenges in this city” who want to speak to those issues through poetry.
For those interested in submitting a poem, Gabbert suggests writing up a list of spots in Dallas that are personally meaningful and then putting together another list of memories or concrete details about these spaces. Then, she suggests trying to fit those ideas into the 2-1 form she designed for the project.
The 2-1 form includes two groups of lines or stanzas separated by one line of space. More details on the format are available on the project website.
Gabbert said “that process of fitting in the building blocks of the details you want to share, there will be spaces that remain open that you may realize you have something interesting to say there or you may make some kind of discovery.”
The project website lists several more criteria for poetry submissions including:
- Poems must follow the 2-1 form
- Poems must be family friendly and appropriate for a general audience
- Poems should be informed by experiences, histories, feelings about Dallas neighborhood
- Poems can be submitted in languages other than English, but only when they’re accompanied by an English translation provided by the author
The Dallas poet laureate said poetry has three powerful abilities: it helps us to grieve and celebrate, it helps us navigate nuance and complexity and it helps us “overcome failures of imagination.”
“I'm just excited about it,” she said. “I really hope that it becomes a lasting opportunity for people in Dallas to remember how meaningful poetry can be in our lives.”
Submissions will be reviewed over the next few months by a selection panel of artists, city employees and community members related to each site. Gabbert said she hopes to start setting the first poems into cement in January.
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