NYC Erasure Poem STEAM Proposal

What are you thinking of making?

We would like to create a map of Manhattan that has cut openings in different parts showcasing an erasure poem or a quote about that neighborhood or someone famous twowho lives there. Manhattan is so diverse that within the city, there are dozens of enclaves that are very different from each other.

Some of the neighborhoods that we will illustrate through text will be: Morningside Heights, Spanish Harlem, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Times Square, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown, Chelsea, Gramercy, Chinatown, Little Italy, SOHO, and the financial district.

We were thinking about putting images or cardboard cut-outs to cover the text of the erasure poem. This way, the text and the material covering the text will be related to that specific neighborhood that we are trying to embody. For example, in Midtown, we might print a few different images of the Empire State Building to use as scrap paper to cover the erasure poem. In the Upper West Side, we might print images of famous opera tenors or Isaac Bashevis Singer.

We also had an idea to use cardboard pop-outs on the map to “erase” the poem. We could use iconic buildings such as the Freedom Tower or the Chrysler Building to “erase” our poem and symbolize that particular neighborhood. 

How does this project relate to the themes and readings of the semester?

Our project idea relates to the topic of erasure poetry which we recently learned about in our class. We were inspired by the assignment for our previous blog post, which was to create our own erasure poem from an already existing poem or document. In fact, one poem that stood out to us was Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”, and so we decided to merge erasure poetry with our love and admiration for New York City. Furthermore, this works out perfectly, since this is an Arts of New York City class and thus our artwork is directly related to the neighborhoods and landmarks in our city. 

Although we have not yet decided exactly who will do which tasks, we plan on having two people write the poem and erasing part of it to make it into an erasure poem. Furthermore, those two people will correlate parts of the erasure poem to certain neighborhoods on the map of Manhattan. Meanwhile, the other two people will work on the layout of the map and add visually appealing elements to our project, including pictures of the landmarks and perhaps even realistic elements, such as bus stops or subway stations. 

How do you imagine (at this point) displaying your project at the STEAM festival?

At this point, we are thinking of using a cardboard base for our map of Manhattan. We would attach our poem on top of the cardboard and then print out a map to put over the poem. This would either stand on the STEAM festival table or we thought of hanging it vertically so that the words that are not erased are able to be seen past the pop-ups. In order to make the words and the pop-ups both visible to viewers, we could display our map on an angle, but the pop-ups would have to be firmly attached to the map so they do not fall down. Additionally, we would have a copy of our poem that is not erased next to our map, so viewers can read the original version. 

 

Write a list of the materials you will need, and where you plan to obtain these materials.