12/11/2010 10:20:01 AM

December 6, 2010

New ''Poetry is Public is Poetry'' installation part of Cedarbrae Branch reopening

The first permanent "Poetry is Public is Poetry" installation features verse from Toronto poet Rosemary Sullivan and is displayed at the main entrance of the Cedarbrae Branch public library, which reopens on December 6.

The three lines "a man packed a country/in a suitcase with his shoes/and left" are permanently mounted in bronze lettering and embedded in the walkway to the library. Taken from the poem Exile (from Sullivan's 1991 collection Blue Panic) these words were chosen by City of Toronto's Poet Laureate Dionne Brand and her advisory committee as a way to provoke a sense of inquisitiveness in visitors as they enter the recently renovated public library.

Rosemary Sullivan is a poet and bestselling author of Labyrinth of Desire: Women, Passion, and Romantic Obsession and The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out. Her biography of Gwendolyn MacEwen, Shadow Maker, won the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction. Sullivan is also a professor of English at the University of Toronto. For more information, visit http://www.rosemarysullivan.com.

A Toronto Poet Laureate initiative, "Poetry is Public is Poetry" showcases and celebrates the work of Canadian poets to help transform Toronto’s public realm into an illuminating forum for the written word. In August, a temporary installation of five panels featuring passages from 34 prominent writers was launched at the Toronto Reference Library. Each installation is also featured at http://www.poetryispublic.ca.

"Poetry is Public is Poetry" is a collaborative endeavour involving the City of Toronto's Cultural Services and Transportation Services working in co-operation with the Toronto Public Library and the Toronto Public Library Foundation. Part of the Poet Laureate's legacy project, this ongoing program merges poetry with public art in order to claim permanent public space for Canadian poetry on Toronto walkways.

More information about Toronto's Poet Laureate is available at http://www.toronto.ca/culture/poet_laureate.htm.