On Prospect Park West, between 14th and 15th street, The Pavilion cinema sits closed. After a long decline it was closed in early November, 2016. It has been leased to Nitehawk Cinema who are doing major renovation. Thus began the renovation project, initially ending in the summer of 2017, now going into January of 2018. Starting early July, poems began appearing on the cinemas marquee. Nitehawk is collaborating with Saint Flashlight, a collaborative team made up of Molly Gross and Drew Pisarra, to curate the poems displayed on the movie theater marquee. Each poem is written by a different poet and each is inspired by a film. Nitehawk has a place on their website where they post information on all the poets and the poem that they wrote.
The poems are not hidden, but they don’t jump out at you. I’ve rushed passed The Pavilion many times thinking the arrangement of the letters was just someone messing about with the unused letters and not bothering to read what they say. I first noticed the poems while waiting to cross the street. I had a moment where all I could do was stare at the pavilion and that’s how I noticed that they were poems. The poems are written in the same letters movie title are written in and as the poems share their titles with a movie one has to look to see that they are poems. There is one poem on each of the three side of the marquee and only the side one is facing is easily visible: to see the poem on the front one must cross the street.
The poems stay up for a fair amount of time. Each volume is up for approximately a month before being replaced. Once the poems are taken off the marquee they can be found on Nighthawk Cinemas website. I believe the post that lists past poems will remain accessible for several years at least. I do not imagine Nitehawk will remove the post when the theater opens.
I don’t always (often) understand the poems, probably because I have not seen most of the movies that inspired the poems. However understanding is not essential, I find the poems quite enjoyable despite not understanding the material that prompted the poem. The poems are fun and I enjoy passing the pavilion and seeing what poems are on the marquee that day. The entrance of the movie theater is covered by a construction fence. Although over the years the quality of the movie theater has declined, having it boarded up for over a year is less than ideal. Having a few poems displayed over the construction fence brings a dash of fun to the construction site. The poems can’t replace having a convenient neighborhood movie theater, but they can make something good out of an unused marquee.
