Around and about the city of Florence, worn-down walls are covered with text—but it’s not careless graffiti, it’s carefully written poetry, typed on sheets of white paper taped into small galleries. These instances of “poetry on the wall,” as they’re often called, are crafted and hung by the Movimento per l’Emancipazione della Poesia, or the Movement for the Emancipation of Poetry (MEP), now in its fifth year.
According to The Florentine, MEP consists of about 100 completely anonymous poets, from ages 15 to 60, in 14 cities that will soon include Naples, Turin and Verona. The movement puts up the poems free of charge and intends to publish verse without financial or political attachments; they’ve been in operation for five years, now. The MEP Facebook page has over 5,000 Likes, and also offers images of posted poems, which is a great way to get acquainted with the dynamism of this street art if your next visit to Italy won’t be for a few months.
Florence is where the MEP was born, and it still has the largest number of the poets, about 20, who produce new sheets to hang every two to three months. The aim is simple: To continue publishing poetry until the form returns “to the center of the cultural debate,” said one of the founders in Corriere della Sera.
The poems vary greatly in length, tone, and subject. They can be about the city, about love, about nature or even about (as one is) Janis Joplin. Now that MEP is reaching more cities and more people, it has launched a website where the authors are linked to their work (their “bylines” are an initial and a number that corresponds to when they joined), a poster of the MEP manifesto is available, and a gallery of photos will be available; the site is still in beta.
By Kathy McCabe
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