Floraffiti is growing strong and April is Poetry Month!
In Carrboro and Chapel Hill, each bright green, growing word carries a message written as a poem about the climate crisis and environmental justice as experienced locally.
Nineteen poems were created by local community members who participated in workshops held by Carrboro Poet Laureate, Liza Wolff-Francis and Chapel Hill Poet Laureate, Cortland Gilliam. The poetry can be accessed via a QR code on a sign at each site. Bring your smartphone to scan and listen. Also found on each sign is an additional QR code to download a map of all the sites.
May is National Bike Month
On Thursday, May 9th, the Carrboro Bike Coalition will host a “Floraffiti Social Ride” from 6-8 pm, starting at Carrboro Town Hall, 301 W Main St. Cyclists will listen to the poetry and chat with Floraffiti founder, Carter Hubbard, as well as workshop leaders: Carrboro Poet Laureate, Liza Wolff-Francis, and Chapel Hill Poet Laureate, Cortland Gilliam; along with local community members who participated in the workshops and wrote the poetry.
This iteration, Floraffiti focuses on environmental justice (EJ), a movement that has widened our lens of environmental concern and activism. The adverse consequences of climate change and its environmental crises will be explored in the community poetry workshops. Environmental justice-themed poetry workshops will address these social-political challenges and inequities that are exacerbated by the climate crisis.
Floraffiti combined eco-social engagement through poetry workshops and is sharing the community members’ words by planting them in the ground, growing with the intent to inform and educate, thereby disrupting climate change hierarchical structures on a local level.