Poems in the capital
צילום: רון פלד
Poetry on the streets of Jerusalem
Exhibit on streets of capital modeled after Tel Aviv predecessor, will feature poems about Jerusalem by Israel's finest poets
Following the success of Tel Aviv’s “Poetry on the Road” project, which brought poems by some of Israel’s best-known poets to the public eye, the City of Jerusalem will launch a similar program this month intended to improve Jerusalemites’ knowledge of Hebrew poetry.
The project, called “Shirehov” (Street Poetry), is set to begin on may 17, and will feature signs with poems on street lights, bus shelters, street signs, display windows, and at cafes. The project will give exposure to the poems of some fifty poets, and will aslo include handing out poetry postcards.
The project will include poems by Ibn Gvirol, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, Yehuda Alharizi, Chaim Nahman Bialik, Leah Goldberg, Avraham Halfi, Rachel, Uri Zvi Greenberg, Shaul Chernichovsky, Natan Alterman, Avot Yeshurun, Natan Zach, Yonah Wallach, Pinhas Sadeh, Zelda, Haim Guri, Yehuda Amichai, Ronny Somek, Maya Bejerano, Hamutal Bar Yosef, Agi Mishol, Erez Biton, Esther Ettinger, Liat Kaplan, and Vicky Shiran.
The Jerusalem Foundation initiated the project with the idea of bringing poetry to the street, and is also funding it together with the Jerualem Municipality.
Topical areas
Some 100 poems on five different topics will be hung in five areas throughout the city. The focus is on poets who lived in Jerusalem and on poetry written in the city. The Ein Karem neighborhood will be dedicated to the topic of urban nature. The pub district, which passes through Ben Sira, Ben Shetah, Heleni Hamalkah, and Nahalat Shivah streets will focus on tastes and senses under the heading “To see, to feel, to breathe in,” while the area of the Mahaneh Yehuda market from Agrippas Street to the Even Yisrael pedestrian promenade will be dedicated to daily activity.
The poems in the Rechavia neighborhood will focus on the moment and on eternity (“Why Jerusalem? Why me?”), and in the German Colony neighborhood the poems will deal with the mystery of love.
