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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Poetry in the Zoos

Well, it's quite a morning for finding stories about spreading poetry to the people in unusual ways. First, poetry bombing, and now this.

Language of Conservation, a program to increase awareness of environmental issues through poetry, features poetry installations in zoos in cities such as New Orleans, Jacksonville, Little Rock, Milwaukee, and Chicago. The projects are curated by such well-known poets as Pattiann Rogers, Mark Doty, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Sandra Alcosser and Joseph Bruchac.

Visit the blog of Poets House (the sponsor) to get more details as well as links to other online articles about this worthy project, including this very comprehensive one at Shaping Outcomes complete with pictures, this one from the American Library Association's Programming Librarians website, and this one from Poetry Magazines' Harriet Blog about their visit to Brookfield Zoo (again with great pictures.)

I loved visiting Brookfield Zoo as a kid when staying with my grandparents over summer vacation. Too bad there weren't any poetry installations back then. Likewise I wish the installation at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens had coincided with my residence in Florida. Time for a trip back to the old stomping grounds? Hmmmmm......

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