“Raining Poetry” initiative brings water-repellent poems to Boston sidewalks for National Poetry Month. Poems by Langston Hughes, Gary Duehr, Barbara Helfgott Hyett, and Elizabeth McKim appear when it rains. Sidewalk Poets use biodegradable spray paint and cardboard stencils. The project may expand to include other languages.
A 2016 public art initiative is bringing poetry to the streets of Boston—all you have to do is add water. To celebrate National Poetry Month, a project called “Raining Poetry” brought verses to city sidewalks in the form of poems written with temporary water-repellent paint. The poems are invisible on dry sunny days, but appear when raindrops fall. Scattered around the city, the poems all have general themes of water and rain and have some significance for Boston.
A poem appears before your eyes:
The poems include works by poets Langston Hughes, Gary Duehr, Barbara Helfgott Hyett and Elizabeth McKim.
Sidewalk Poets use biodegradable spray paint and simple cardboard stencils in a process that takes only minutes to apply. Poems typically wash away in six to eight weeks.
The project has been so well received that members of Mass Poetry want to expand with water-activated verse in languages other than English.
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