Downtown Edmonton Poetry
Attention Edmonton Poets! The Downtown Business Association (DBA) wants your poems. Not just any old poems, either. They want your urban poetry. The poems must be about downtown Edmonton, which, if you ask me, is great.
When people think of poetry from Alberta, they tend to think of odes to the canola fields, or harsh tales of working on the oil sands. Of course, there is nothing wrong with those types of poems, but despite the stereotypes, Alberta is an urban province.
The vast majority of Albertans live in urban centres–mostly Edmonton and Calgary–so it only makes sense that we start producing art that reflects that fact. I happen to know several artists who have taken this to heart, and create work that reflects upon Alberta’s urban areas. Mike Gravel’s StreetRag is the first project that comes to mind, but it’s certainly not the only one.
Besides, the DBA is an organization that promotes downtown Edmonton, so it only makes sense that they’d commission work about the city’s core.
The prize consists of publication of the poem in the DBA Newsletter, $50 in Downtown Dollars, and a $50 gift certificate for TIX on the Square. The poem will also be read during the opening ceremonies of the Edmonton Poetry Festival. According to the Edmonton Journal, a $50 gift certificate for one downtown restaurant is also part of the prize, but it isn’t listed on the DBA website, so I can’t confirm that.
The content deadline is 4pm, August 17, 2007. For full details, visit the Downtown Business Association website.