TransLinked

Poetry in Transit won’t be going anywhere anytime soon

Many cities promote local artists and writers inside vehicles, and the Greater Vancouver area is no different. This city names the campaign Poetry in Transit, and while this correspondent won’t try to analyze any poetry, anywhere, he does enjoy the breaks from the commercial reality that pervades the rest of vehicles in the form of advertising. There are even vehicles, usually newly-minted buses, that have only Poetry in Transit. What an oasis!

Karen, another author on this blog, noticed the other day that she hadn’t seen Poetry in Transit posters on buses or SkyTrain lately. We looked at The Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia and found that their Poetry in Transit page contained no information on 2009. (On another page, they say they are “currently obtaining the rights to place poems that have been included in this project on [their] website”!) We got this very nice response from ABPBC:

The Poetry in Transit cards are up for 6 months on TransLink (lower mainland) buses and SkyTrains and then they go to BC Transit (rest of BC) buses for the other 6 months of the year. This year’s Poetry in Transit, which usually launches at Word On The Street at the end of September, will launch at the end of May during the Main Street Literary Tour. The reason for this year’s delay is because TransLink has a blackout on all buses/SkyTrains for the Olympics.

Although the ABPBC has recently lost operating grants from the BC Arts Council, Poetry in Transit does get funding, in part, from the Canada Council and this is one of their most favourite projects (and ours!) so it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

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