Poetry in Motion (arts program)

Poetry in Motion is an arts program collaborative which displays poems by prominent authors in advertising space on the buses and subways.

History

Poetry in Motion® was developed in 1992 by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Poetry Society of America and aimed to make the use of New York City public transportation more enjoyable and enlightening. The program was originally based on the British Council program Poems on the Underground, and was launched to reach the nearly 7 million daily commuters of New York City.

The first set of poems was "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" by Walt Whitman, "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" by Emily Dickinson, "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats, and "Let There Be New Flowering" by Lucille Clifton. Since then, poems by more than 100 different authors have bean featured.

Expansion to Other Cities

Originally designed for New York's MTA system, Poetry in Motion® expanded to cities with heavy commuter traffic in public transportation including:

1996 - Chicago, IL and Boston, MA 1997 - Baltimore, MD and Portland, OR 1998 - Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA; and Washington, D.C. 1999 - Philadelphia, PA 2000 - Pioneer Valley, Austin, Fort Collins, Houston, Iowa, and Ohio State University's public transportation.

Sources

• Ten Years of Poetry in Motion
• Poems Previously Appearing in Poetry in Motion
• Poetry Society Page