National Poetry Day Toolkit
OUTDOOR EVENTS TO DATE
1994 Peg out your poems
A simple washing line right round the building. Large sheets of paper provided for people to write their poems on- and pegs. Easy and enjoyable.
1995 Poems on the Pavement
Literally coloured chalks provided and people used the large paved area outside the building. This is the easiest event to organise. No problems with planning, street cleaning etc- chalk washed away quickly or gets rubbed off by peoples feet. You do have to watch out for children writing on the walls of buildings as well, as this doesn't disappear as easily.
1996 Poems in the Air
Poems written on cards and tied to balloons and released. More complex to organise- you need to make sure you get the right weight of card so that they don't hinder the balloons. Also in central Manchester you have to get permission to release balloons near overhead tram cables.
1997 Poetry Garden
Partnership project with MMU Art and Design dept. They designed a series of colourful free-standing trees, gardens, etc. Participants wrote poems on flowers and leaves and 'planted' them in the garden. Very visual, this attracted a lot of interest. A lot more 'cost' to this one in terms of planning and input from MMU.
1998 Comic Poems on the Pavement
This was so easy and so popular we did it again!
1999 Poetry Hospital
Visual artist commissioned to create giant body parts - people could write their poems on bones! Poetry Doctors helped people fill in their poetry prescriptions. This was our most ambitious poetry day so far. Attracted a lot of interest. The bones didn't work too well- couldn't get our pens to write on damp plaster of paris! But the prescriptions worked well.
2000 'Fridge magnets'
Lots of individual words written on cards. Groups of participants were given an assortment of randomly picked words. They had to assemble them into poems which were briefly displayed and photographed on screens. This was the one year the event was ruined by heavy rain but this activity worked well in the foyer of the library.
2001 Journeys
Poetry River A partnership event with the Mersey Basin Campaign. They commissioned a freelance worker to create a 'river' installation. Poems with a journey theme were written on boats and fish and placed in the river. Looked great - partnership working developed a good new link and schools enjoyed this one.
2002 Celebration of Sport
To 'finish off' Manchester's sporting year and to launch a collection of football poems written for and collected on World Book Day, poems were written on balls from lots of different sports and displayed in goal nets. Also team games played with poetry words (see Fridge magnets above).
If you want any more details about any of the Manchester events, please contact Jane Mathieson
