Through Poetry Paths on the Street, we work with arts and community organizations throughout Lancaster to develop, commission and install pieces of art featuring poems. These original works of art are designed to seed new perspectives, create new connections, and bring beauty and intrigue to Lancaster’s residents and visitors. Completed Poetry Paths pieces can be found now at Lancaster Public Libr
ary, Tabor Community Services, Bright Side Opportunities Center, and Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. Installations at Spanish American Civic Association, Fulton Theatre, Keystone Art and Culture Center, Water Street Ministries, Shreiner Concord Cemetery and other sites are coming soon. Through Poetry Paths in the Schools, we partner with our Poet in the Schools, Barbara Buckman Strasko, as well as Lancaster City teachers and principals, to offer excellent poetry writing workshops to about 250 public elementary and middle school students each year. In preparation for the workshops, Poetry Paths also sponsors experiences for the students that give them a new and deeper appreciation of their neighborhoods. For example, this year students at Wickersham visited the Lancaster Science Factory and learned about physics and light, while Ross students spent a day riding the Amtrak train from Lancaster to Philadelphia and back, meeting with the Philadelphia station master and reading train and journey poems along the way. At the end of each program year, we publish a journal of the kids’ poetry and host a large public reading of their work for teachers, principals, students, families, neighbors and friends. Since 2009, we have worked with a total of 1050 students from 16 public schools in Lancaster.
