Are you a poet and ready to let New York City — and Twitter — know it? The ninth annual #PoetweetNYC Twitter poetry contest is officially underway, and you could have the chance to have your words published right here in the pages of Metro.
Running today through Friday, #PoetweetNYC is run by the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Cultural Affairs in celebration of April being National Poetry Month. Winners will be announced in Metro on Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 26 and via the city’s social media channels.
This year’s #PoetweetNYC will also be a joint celebration of Earth Day, which falls on April 22 this year, and the 40th anniversary of Material for the Arts, the Long Island City-based reuse warehouse that gathers discarded items from city businesses and residents and donates them to public schools, nonprofits and artists.
Keeping those two in mind, organizers are looking for New York’s poets to write and submit poems about the environment and sustainability, and with Twitter’s new expanded character limit, you’ll have extra room to truly let your words of love for Mother Earth blossom.
Here’s how #PoetweetNYC works
Tweet your original poem using #PoetweetNYC in a single tweet between 9 a.m. Monday and 5 p.m. Friday.
You may enter as many original poems as you would like, but be sure to keep it clean because any poem that’s obscene, defamatory or inappropriate will be disqualified.
This year’s judges are first lady Chirlane McCray; Tom Finkelpearl, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs; Mark Chambers, director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability; Alice Quinn, executive director of the Poetry Society of America and Jennifer Benka, executive director of the Academy of American Poets.
Five finalists will be selected, based on the appeal of the composition and subject matter of the Twitter poem, overall quality and creative use of Twitter’s parameters to make a poem.
The winners will be announced and featured in Metro on Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 26 and via the city’s @NYCMayorsOffice and @NYCulture Twitter accounts.
All New Yorkers are encouraged to literally carry a Poem in Your Pocket on April 26 to share with friends, families or even a stranger. The day was founded by the mayor’s office in 2002 and is now celebrated across the U.S. and Canada.
