Community Poem Writing in South Philly

Posted by Free Library of Philadelphia on April 17, 2017

What if an entire community wrote one line each on a vintage Underwood Typewriter to create a really, really, long poem? Would it bring world peace? Would love abound? Would we become a United Nation? One can hope, right? On April 3, South Philly poet, Maria Fama composing the first line of our poem. She pecked out her lines on the 1927 machine on loan by Philly Typewriter. By the end of the day, others had followed suit. By creating this program we wanted to celebrate the written word and to tell the world that words matter. It just happens that April is National Month, not to mention National Library Week on April 9. This program isn’t just for South Philly residents. Anyone can drop in and tap out a line or two. Click here to watch the first day of the creation of the Fumo Family Library Poem.

Taking place throughout the month of April.  South Philly’s own Maria Fama kicked off the program and wrote one line. Your task is to add a line to our growing poem. At the end of the month we will post it at the library and online. Thank you to Philly Typewriters for the loan!