Kickstarter Project - PoetrySlabs - Foundation Stones for Public Poetry

PoetrySlabs - Foundation Stones for Public Poetry

Crowdfunding campaign to create and curate a public poetry; the poetrification of an urban area by putting words on walls. 

They have until Saturday 30th April to raise £500

See the appeal below 

We need your assistance in crushing the curse of the copper thieves! Please help us to poetrify West Norwood and reconnect it to the poetic legacy that has been building up here over the years. This legacy was looted in 2011 when thieves stole copper off our library roof, which led to the closure of the Poetry Garden in the Nettlefold Hall. We need your support to strengthen our hand as we dance down the High Street putting poetry on walls. We've lots of ideas, and we're linking up with artists and makers who want to help put the beat back in the heart of West Norwood! Check out the story below, and see if you can put your hand into your pocket and find something to give to help keep the project moving on down the road...

We are working with a local artist to slab some poetry onto the wall of the Norwood Bus Garage – a Tennyson phrase has been chosen to help the Bzz Garage (a community garden run by volunteers along two perimeter walls of the Bus Garage) to ward off litter and entice people to pluck the fruit from its newly planted ‘Open Orchard’ trees. 

We are holding public poetry readings at the monthly West Norwood FEAST, with the help of actors from the South London Theatre. We have teamed up with the West Norwood FEAST to bring the Emergency Poet all the way from Wales to salve the souls of the poetry-parched people of West Norwood. 

There are many other groups of people – singers, players, writers, planters, growers, conservers, storytellers, film-makers, artists, weavers, makers – who are already eager to take part in this new spell of speaking well in West Norwood. We are currently discussing possibilities for collaboration with a local redevelopment programme and a local school. 

If you would like to be part of this regeneration, you can pledge your troth and in return we will promise to remember your name as one of the many who want to be part of the poetrification of West Norwood – songs, poetry, sayings and slabbing are the ways in which we’ll remember your kind act. 

This Kickstarter campaign will help us keep things going (listed above) this summer as we make ourselves known, complete our first installation, build trust and support for the idea, and communicate with people about what is happening. We are already talking to people involved in other projects in the area, and we are investigating grants and collaborations with venues, makers, poets and funders. This project has potential, and with your help, it could really go a long way...  

See their Kickstarter appeal HERE