Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2004SYR16
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Poem Inspiration Location
In Hanover Square
poster information
Description
In Hanover Square
open mics opened the way:
brotherhood and prayer
When I came to Syracuse, in 2002, I met a young man named Brian Boutwell, and he invited me to perform at a place in Hanover Square. There were a lot of black people I had met, artists, who, when I told them I'd been invited to perform in Hanover Square—their response surprised me. They said, “We don't go to Hanover Square. We're not welcome at Hanover Square.”
Once I performed, and I was the only black person there, I said, Well, it's not like anybody is saying, “Don't come.” And the one thing I did know is that art helped integrate this country—through jazz music and the big band era. I knew the history of that. So, what I did, when I started getting involved, was to incorporate as many people as I could—Asian, black. And Hanover Square embraced those people.
This haiku initially caught my eye because I'm a fan of poetry and I'm familiar with the café in Hanover Square. What really sealed the deal was the actual scene I found when I visited open mic night at the Coffee Pavilion; the audience was really tuned—in to the reader—all these engaging postures and expressions—and the reader had this great body language.
Since the haiku depicted brotherhood, I probably shouldn't have been surprised by the diversity of the audience, but I was. The poetry brought together a true variety of people, and I sketched what I saw. The people and the feel of the scene are what I attempted to capture.