Philadelphia has a rich heritage of poetry. That legacy is reflected in a diverse stable of writers, a vibrant literary culture, respected institutions such as the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania and events like the Harvest Open Mic -- the largest open mic night in Philadelphia, it draws in a variety of performers, from spoken word artists and poetry slammers to musicians and stand-up comedians.
 
So when Mayor Michael Nutter saw poet Sonia Sanchez perform at a City Hall Presents event, he wondered why the City didn't have a Poet Laureate of its own. He appointed her to the role. Now there is a formal process and a growing interest in the title, which is helping to elevate the artform in Philadelphia.
 
Write Your Block is a citywide project from the current Poet Laureate, Sanchez's successor Frank Sherlock. The idea is based on his collaborative collection of poems, The City Real & Imagined, a self-guided psychogeographical wandering through "the City of Otherly Love."

The resulting program is a literary exploration of place and identity, a collection of personal reflections from different neighborhoods throughout the city, examining the writers' relationships to place and the identity that relationship informs. The ever-growing collection forms a kind of psychosocial map of the city.
 
"The idea was to create psychic poems, to write walking paths of citywide landmarks or personal landmarks, and [for people] to create a poem about Philadelphia as they see it," explains Lindsay Tucker So, Research and Public Policy Associate with Creative Philadelphia. "He mentioned it in his interview and application, and we thought it was an interesting way to elevate the role of poetry in Philadelphia. That's the role of the Poet Laureate -- to make poetry a more visible art form and make it incredibly accessible."
 
Tucker So, an Americans for the Arts Emerging Arts Leader, manages the Mayor's Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate programs. She also oversees CultureBlocks, a free online mapping tool that visualizes the city's cultural assets and activity alongside local geographic, social, economic and demographic data. The different branches of her work dovetail nicely with Write Your Block, a project that is as geographically-minded as it is literary.
 
"The goal of Write Your Block is to activate people of different demographic experiences with poetry to write about Philadelphia as they see it," she says.
  
For this experiment to work, people need to be engaged. To do that, Tucker So, Sherlock and Creative Philadelphia are working with partners -- including libraries with after school committees, community organizations, and teachers and arts education organizations -- to incorporate this project into their programming. One especially valuable ally has been the Village of Arts & Humanities' People's Paper Co-op, a collaborative art and activism project that brings together artists, civil rights lawyers and returning citizens to clear barriers for thousands of Philadelphia residents.  
 
Sherlock is also leading extended workshops in key neighborhoods. He aims to get students interested in poetry and inspire them do their own Write Your Block activities, including getting out and walking around their city. Those workshops wrapped up in April, aka National Poetry Month. Creative Philadelphia will eventually release a print collection of selected works along with a Write Your Block map.
 
While Sherlock's tenure as Poet Laureate ends in December 2015, Tucker So hopes to keep Write Your Block going as a longterm project.

"We think it's really interesting and that it will gain more momentum over the years," she argues. "[We hope] to involve other poets, bringing it to their own communities and in their own style of poetry, and expanding on it to make it more fluid based on their personal styles, whether they are Poet Laureates or not."
 
The Write Your Block submissions can all be read here, where you can also submit your own. There is also a toolkit and map to get people started. In an effort to reach a larger and more demographically diverse audience, Creative Philadelphia has delivered print pieces to community partners, eliminating the digital divide and ensuring all residents are able to participate.