NEIGHBORHOOD HAIKU COMES TO LEXINGTON

Read the haikus here

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Carol Davidson with Kenji shows off her haiku at Eye Look Lexington Center (photo credit Cecily Miller)

On Tuesday, July 12, 6-8 PM, Lexington celebrated its haiku winners with live music by Betty's Bounce, a jazz trio performing American and Gypsy Jazz, folks reading their haiku poems and tours of the storefront haiku. 
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This spring Lexington Council for the Arts sponsored a large-scale public art project, which brings original haiku poetry to storefront windows up and down Massachusetts Ave. Known as the Neighborhood Haiku Project, it links Lexington Center and East Lexington. The dynamic  installation will be on view through September 2022.

Haiku is a short, three-line poem – 17 syllables max - offering a fun and challenging form to capture a moment or memory. These poems are hand-painted on storefront windows here in Lexington. 

Community members and others submitted over 200 haiku poems. The jurors who specialized in haiku poetry selected 35 poems. Children wrote six of the winners. The 35 haiku poems are hand-painted on storefront windows here in Lexington. 

Cary Library, Lexington Historical Society, Munroe Center for the Arts, and Lexington Community Education provided interactive, participatory, and fun workshops on how to write haiku in May. 
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Master sign painter Kenji Nakayama instructed the 17-artist volunteer team window in painting techniques. He demonstrated, guided, and helped them practice their techniques on windows at MA - France in East Lexington and Conte’s Bike Shop in Lexington Center, “Laurie Bogdan, the Neighborhood Haiku project manager, said, “I received great support from local businesses for this project. Folks appreciated the Lexington Arts Council bringing art to their doorsteps.” Wicked Bagel in East Lexington even fed the volunteer!

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NEIGHBORHOOD HAIKU COMES TO LEXINGTON CENTER

We’re celebrating Lexington with Neighborhood Haiku – a public art project bringing original poetry to storefront windows! Inspired by a successful project organized by our neighbors at the Arlington Commission for Arts & Culture, we’re inviting the whole Lexington community to take up pen and write a 3-line poem! Thirty haiku will be selected to be hand-painted in storefront windows as a way to show our local small businesses some love and showcase local creativity. All haiku will be published on LexArtsCouncil.org and all authors will be invited to read at a July celebration.  So take the haiku challenge! 
 
You can write on your own, collaborate with friends or family, or take a workshop.  Anyone who lives, works, or spends time in and is inspired by Lexington is eligible to submit.  Poems are due on June 1 via email to: [email protected]
 
What should the haiku be about?  Whatever you like, but best to anchor your haiku in observation of the world around you.  Community and conversation, local shops and restaurants, history and nature – there’s a lot here in Lexington to inspire your poems.  Haiku offers a fun and challenging form to capture a moment or memory.  You can pack a surprising amount into these short, short poems – 17 syllables max – but you have to pick each word strategically.  Many haiku incorporate humor or have a surprise twist at the end. 
 
One of the best ways to polish up your haiku skills and fire up your imagination is a workshop. Workshop schedule and registration, our Open Call, Rules, Inspiring Examples, and Links to Resources are all below.

When is it?

The week of June 6-12, 2022  (week to be changed)  is intended as a family-friendly cross-town celebration, with a map to show locations of the homes, scavenger hunts for children, and opportunities for participants of all ages to create their own. 
 
For more information, contact us  [email protected]

Project Team

​Laurie Bogdan, Project Manager
Jessie Brown, Poetry Advisor and Workshop Leader
Cecily Miller, Artistic Director
Kenji Nakayama, Artist and Sign Painter
Stephen Poltorzycki, Project Champion/Lexington Arts Council Member

Project Partners

​Cary Library
Lexington Historical Society

Project Supporters

Neighborhood Haiku in Lexington was supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency
 
Additional funds provided by the Lexington Arts Council and donations from local business supporters.