by Laura Steiger, Outreach Team
November, 2016

Transforming abandoned phone booths in the age of cell phones. Stop by the Poem Booth to read the poem of the quarter and check their website to read the runners up.
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Have you noticed some activity around the abandoned phone booth on the outside of our Downtown store along Forest Street? For several months now, a team of three dedicated artist-writer-activists have been putting a plan into action to create something beautiful from the former eyesore.
Along with gussying up the booth, the team solicited poetry submissions from the community and selected a featured poem that will be on display in the Poem Booth from March 1 to May 31. The prompt for the writing content was, “If you could call anyone, anywhere, any century (including this one), what would you say?”
As we excitedly anticipated the unveiling of the booth and the winning poem we also pondered who we would call. On March 4, the winning poem was unveiled in a ribbon cutting ceremony that officially kicked-off the project.
Stop by the booth soon to read the winning poem, and go to the Poem Booth Bellingham website to read the runner-up poems. Every three months, a writing contest will be hosted with a new prompt and another featured poem will be selected for display at the booth.
Will you be the next featured poet? In addition to three months of acclaim, the winner of the first contest received $25 cash and a $25 Community Food Co-op gift certificate, so what have you got to lose? Check the website for submission guidelines and get in touch with your inner poet!
Learn more at poembooth.weebly.com.