About the Project
The Denver Poetry Map is a way to rethink and re-know the city. A map, generally speaking, imposes a system of knowledge upon a place. It denotes the official names of streets and buildings, displays property ownership, tells the reader where s/he con or can't go - that king of thing. This map is different. It is, I hope, what Stephen Voyce calls a "counter map," a map "that disrupt[s] and reconstitute[s] notions of place, space, landscape and community." This map asks the reader to explre the city through poetry, to understand the spaces within it differently because of the poems.
Front range poets and artists (along with some poets and artists who have passed through) contribute works that are in some way related to a particular point on the map, a site in the city. The poems here are not descriptions of a place per se. Rather they are impressions of place. In some cases, they are poems that were composed at a particular location, in a coffee shop overlooking Colfax, on a patio in Congress Park - that is their connection to that place. In other cases, they are poems that are the result of an event that occurred at a specific shop, apartment, or streetcorner. In still other cases, a poem might formally reflect or comment upon a bit of Denver architecture or the might be composed of a bit of text appropriated from signs and window dressing. In each case, the poet has connected his/her poem to a location. And we, as reader of the map and the poems, perhaps have an opportunity to gain a new understanding of the spaces that we might think we know well. Perhaps the poetry here will allow us to understand ourselves a bit differently - our selves in time and space - our selves in relation to each other - our selves in the city in which we live, work or visit.
This map will continue to grow and evolve. Bookmark us and come back often. If you have any questions or would like to submit something, please contact us at:
denverpoetrymap@gmail.com
Thanks for stopping by.
Aaron Angello
Editor/Curator