Broadsided: Poetry, Prose, & Art on the Streets as Modern Broadsides

Broadsides poetry broadsided press art literature grassroots vectors

April 15 - 25, in honor of National Poetry Month, we held a posting contest. Thanks for playing!

Become a Vector or contribute via PayPal to keep the lights on. We need you!

Think of it as web-enhanced grassroots guerilla art.

On the first of every month, a new collaboration is posted for you to download. Free.

We hope you'll print it and post it in your local haunts— coffee shops, libraries, office doors, telephone poles, etc. That will make you a Vector.

Vectors are posting around the world.

We want to put literature and art on the streets. Help us.

Tell your local paper or radio station about Broadsided— as a local person participating in an international project, YOU are the story:

• About Broadsided
• About the Editors & Artists
• Sample Cover Letter

Let us know what happens!

Cost Benefit
Writing by Lisa Allen Ortiz
Art by Cheryl Gross
Broadsided May 1, 2012

Download the Broadsided file
to print & post (548kb PDF)

Collaborators' Q&A:

Bsided: This poem was chosen in response to Cheryl Gross's art—can you talk about the experience of finding words that were in conversation with the image? What leapt out first from Cheryl's art? A particular image? A mood? A line?
Poet Lisa Allen Ortiz: ...I had been mourning the loss of our home movies (accidentally put in a good will bag while cleaning), and the odd figures reminded me of distorted children's toys and thus of memories and what we lose with time. The receipt made me think about what memories are worth...
— Read more from the collaborators.

Meet The Collaborators:

Writer Lisa Allen Ortiz is currently an MFA candidate at Pacific University. Her poems have appeared in Zyzzyva, The Literary Review and Crab Orchard Review, and her chapbook Turns Out was published last year by Main Street Publishing Company. She lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Artist Cheryl Gross has an MFA in New Forms from Pratt. She writes: "When asked about my work, I always equate it with creating an environment transforming my inner thoughts into reality. Much like an architect or urban planner, that reality and humor becomes the foundation of the work. Beginning with the physical process, I work in layers. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, my urban influence has indeed added an "edge" to my work. Coming from a totally vertical and intense environment, I now live in Jersey City, NJ." www.cmgross.com

I have to say, this is the most hopeful and awesome thing I've seen in a while.

Read more and tell us what you think of Broadsided or about your Vectorizing adventures.

4/1/12:
Delivering to the Client

poem by Paul Dickey
art by Ira Joel Haber

3/1/12:
The Ringmaster Answers the Phone

poem by Amorak Huey
art by Meghan Keane

2/1/12:
Omnivore

poem by James Arthur
art by Se Thut Quon

1/1/12:
The Haiku Year-in-Review

multiple contributors

12/1/11:
Tile Drainage

story by Christopher Lee Miles
art by Kara Searcy

11/1/11:
Red House, Indiana

story by Renee K Nelson
art by Cheryl Gross