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

Broadsides poetry broadsided press art literature grassroots vectors

"The Dry Tortugas":
(click for larger view)
poem by Molly Fisk and art by Yuko Adachi

Download the Broadsided file
(196kb PDF)

• What did the writer and artist think about their Broadsided experience? Collaborator's Q & A.

Writing & Art By...

• Feb: Karen Llagas & Helen Beckman Kaplan
• March: Ilya Kaminsky & Elizabeth Terhune
• April: SWITCHEROO (art by Kevin Morrow)
• May: Karen Weyant & Alesia F. Norling
• June: Alison Pelegrin & Cheryl Gross
• July: Benjamin Grossberg & Jenny Bevy

Before paperbacks and pocket books, before blogs, there were broadsides.

Every day, we walk past billboards for shops and car dealers, for churches and insurance, but our streets, our daily lives among each other, are missing something. They're missing thought. Dialogue. Opinion. Ideas.

Let's put words out there for people to snort at, sigh over, argue with, and read. Let's put up broadsides.

THE PLAN

On the first of every month, a new Broadsided literary/visual collaboration will be posted here for you to download.

What's more, Vectors (this could be you!) will post them in cafes, hallways, and elsewhere. See where Vectors are posting and add your town.

HISTORY

Loosely defined as single sheets of paper printed on one side, broadsides were the most diverse form of brief, single-occasion publishing before the Civil War. Although broadsides were first introduced in England, they became a prime means of communication in the United States.

Announcements, advertisements, song lyrics, commentaries, cartoons, and poems were printed and posted in towns across the nation. Later, Harlem Renaissance, Concrete, and Beat writers claimed the broadside as a below-the-radar way to get their words out onto the streets.

We want to continue the tradition.

• The Broadsided Gallery: View all Broadsided publications in an easy-to-browse gallery format.
• New Vectors in Palmer, Alaska; Saulsalito, California; and Nashville, Tennessee. Broadside your town.

• 12/1/08: Late, Jon Ballard and Lisa Sette. (view it) (get it - 440kb pdf)
• 11/1/08: Empire, Kathleen Lynch and Helen Beckman Kaplan. (view it) (get it - 184kb pdf)
• 10/1/08: Dear Wallet, Aaron Plasek and Kate Baird. (view it) (get it - 212kb pdf)
• 9/1/08: Open, Jericho Brown and Kevin Morrow. (view it) (get it - 268kb pdf)
• 8/1/08: Ghazal for the Woman from Vitez, Susan Rich and Undine Brod. (view it) (get it - 296kb pdf)
• 7/1/08: Neighborhood Watch, Anjali Khosla and Douglas Culhane. (view it) (get it - 264kb pdf)
• 6/1/08: Under Construction, Leah Browning & Ira Joel Haber. (view it) (get it - 264kb pdf)
• 5/1/08: Meditation on the Treason of His Body, Joe Wilkins & Alesia F. Norling. (view it) (get it - 196kb pdf)