Peace is a Haiku Song

Expected Completion Date: June 2012

Artist: TBD

Location: South Broad Street

Mural Arts is once again honored to work with one of the nation’s cultural treasures: poet, activist, and educator Sonia Sanchez. Our latest project—Peace is a Haiku Song—engages the Philadelphia community and beyond in an exploration of the haiku as a vehicle for peace and urban transformation.

This exciting project will culminate in a mural honoring Sanchez as a celebrated practitioner and teacher of the haiku. The mural will be inspired by Sanchez’s belief that the haiku form is inherently non-violent in its intent and structure and engenders beauty, serenity, and brief reflection.

The project began at the First Person Arts Festival on Sunday, November 13 at Christ Church, when Sanchez kicked off a city-wide collaborative poem made of individual haiku and conducted a mini-workshop.

Winter and spring workshops based on the haiku form and its intersection with other disciplines (such as painting, photography, and music) will engage our art education students, reflecting on their personal visions of peace.

Residents, visitors, and citizens from around the world will have an opportunity to contribute haiku to the project online via a dedicated webpage and Twitter feed (@MuralArtsPeace and #peacehaiku). Selected haiku will be featured in mini-murals in unexpected locations around Philadelphia and will serve as places to stop and reflect on the city. The final mural will honor Sanchez and reflect as many of the individual haiku as possible.

Sponsored by: City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services