Calling all poets, poetry lovers, and lovers of Middlebury: You could have your poem engraved into Middlebury’s downtown sidewalks! 

Our team of local artists and creative community builders dreamt that our downtown sidewalks could be the slate for a trail of poems. The dream involved people of all ages and abilities getting inspired to write poems about our community. We imagined many more people ambling across town to find and read them. That dream is starting to come true thanks to an Animating Infrastructure grant from the Vermont Arts Council, which will pay for five poems to be installed in the next year. We are aiming to raise funds for additional poems through Ioby and ArtPlace. PLEASE chip in what you can! 

The Library, local schools, bookstores, poets, poetry groups, the town, and downtown organizations and businesses are all excited to see this happen - especially during the next year when our downtown will be turned inside-out by the rail and bridge construction. Our first contest will launch this fall and the winning poem will be engraved in front of the library. We will continue to hold contests for additional locations throughout the next year. Poems will be selected by community members in a blind judging process after issuing an open call for original submissions from the public.

In addition to the sidewalk poems, we are organizing poetry events, pop-up art, and celebrations all tied to poetry and the downtown.

Word On The Street will be the first of its kind in Vermont. Supporting partners include Middlebury Underground, Community Workshop, the Department of Public Dreams, the Better Middlebury Partnership, Ilsley Library, the Town of Middlebury, and many local teachers, writers, poets, and artists. To connect with the organizers, learn more or get involved, contact poems@communityworkshopllc.com or find Word On The Street on Facebook or on Instagram. 

Word On The Street proposes that anyone can be a poet, though they might not know it.