Episode 1 Poetry on Transit

Altered Mobillity

Poetry on Transit is a story that starts with American moxie, in combination with quality British public transportation and literature. Poetry on transit begins with a native Brooklynite, who was living in London and sitting around a table with a group of friends. The idea was embraced by the London Underground and soon spread in Europe and across the US, with drama along the way. Poetry on transit has lasted and it has evolved, with greater awareness of diversity in culture and languages, and service to the transit riders who read the lines of poetry as they travel to work, school, or wherever they go, wherever they live.

Sources for more information:

Please note that the newspaper articles are available for free through many public library systems. They are not all available otherwise on the Internet.

Reciting of poetry during the episode: At the end of the show notes for this episode is an explanation of the legal fair use of the poetry mentioned and recited during the episode. Some of the poems included in the episode are not subject to copyright law due to age of the poem and the number of years since the poet’s death. Some poems are reprinted with permission. “Reprinted with permission” is noted wherever applicable. There were also inquiries with no response.

Equity

· EPA report – “Environmental Equity: Reducing Risk for All Communities” (volume 1 and volume 2)

Poetry on Transit

What is poetry on transit?

· RIPTA Poetry in Motion – https://www.ripta.com/projects/poetryinmotion/#:~:text=In%20September%202017%2C%20the%20Rhode,display%20boards%20inside%20RIPTA%20buses

London Poems on the Underground

· Steven Prokesch, London Journal; For the Straphangers, Poetry Sweetens the Ride, NYTimes (Jan. 9, 1992)

· Poems on the Underground Facebook page

New York and Poetry in Motion

· General information and history of the program – https://poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-motion

· Poetry exchange between New York’s MTA and the London Underground in 1994 – Judith Chernaik, O Brooklyn Local, NYTimes (May 14, 1994)

· 2008 end of poetry in motion and its resurgence –

o Robin Pogrebin, MTA Derails Poetry, NYTimes (Apr. 30, 2008);

o Adam Sternbergh, Because We Fight Over Poetry; Literature provides commuter inspiration, Vox Media, LLC (Dec. 21, 2009);

o Michael Grynbaum, In the City's Subway, Literary Placards Will Soon Be Mere Echoes in the Memory, NYTimes (Dec. 21, 2010);

o Clyde Haberman, A Second Act for Poetry in the Subways, NYTimes (Mar. 28, 2012)

· Poetry in Motion history and coming through Covid – Colin Moynihan, For the Subway, All the Right Lines, NYTimes (May 4, 2020)

Evolving iterations of poetry on transit

· Indianapolis – Poetry taking the bus, Indianapolis Business Journal, vol. 27, no. 18, 10 p. 13 (July 10, 2006)

· Pittsburgh, which still has a poetry in transit program, adorned the exterior of buses with poetry – Elwin Green, New Port Authority buses become poetry in motion, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Jan. 24, 2006)

· New Jersey high school poetry project – Douglas Goetsch, Poetry stand: how a precocious group of high school poets learned to provide verse on demand, American Scholar, vol. 76, 4 (Autumn 2007)

King County, WA, including Seattle and surrounding area –

· https://www.4culture.org/poetry-on-buses-takes-a-poetic-stand-on-water/ and https://www.4culture.org/public_art/poetry-on-buses/

· https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/networks-and-councils/public-art-network/public-art-year-in-review-database/poetry-on-buses-your-body-of-water

· https://poetryonbuses.org/about/

Poetry read during the episode

· Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman – https://poetrysociety.org/poems/crossing-brooklyn-ferry

· Let There Be New Flowering by Lucille Clifton, from good woman: poems and a memoir 1969-1980 by Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 1987. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd – https://poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-motion/let-there-be-new-flowering

· Thanks Forever by Milton Kessler, from The Grand Concourse by Milton Kessler. Copyright © 1990; published by the State University of New York at Binghamton – https://poemsontheunderground.org/thanks-forever

· Western Wind (unknown author) – https://poemsontheunderground.org/western-wind

· Separation by W.S. Merwin, from The Second Four Books of Poems by W.S. Merwin, published by Copper Canyon Press. Copyright © 1993. Reprinted with the permission of the Wylie Agency LLC – https://merwinconservancy.org/2015/02/poem-of-the-week-separation-2/

· Root/Route by Michelle Penaloza – https://poetryonbuses.org/poems2017/michelle-penaloza/?indv=y. Information about the poetry of Michelle Penaloza is available at http://www.michellepenaloza.com/.

Poems and excerpts of poems read during the episode

Let there be new flowering by Lucille Clifton

let there be new flowering
in the fields let the fields
turn mellow for the men
let the men keep tender
through the time let the time
be wrested from the war
let the war be won
let love be
at the end

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman (excerpts)

Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!

Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high—I see you also...