Haiku

March 20, 2019, Rock Hill - Fourteen Haiku poems written by 11 students from South Pointe High School have been selected by a panel of judges from the Women's Art Initiative (WAI) for its sidewalk project in downtown Rock Hill.  WRHI's Palmetto Mornings Show interviews Harriet Goode and Sula Pettibon February 18, 2019, about this project. On April 3, 2019, Grazier Rhea tells WRHI's Steven Stone all about its completion.

WAI will stencil the entries on sidewalks from Fountain Park to Dave Lyle Boulevard in celebration of National Poetry Month in April and Rock Hill's first Poet Laureate.

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Winners are:

Alex Atkins

Addison Creagh

Indigo Davis

Aiden Funke

Andrea J'nai Gordon

Spencer Hall

Deville Harris

Logan Hilton

Son Nguyen

Caroline Polson

Sydney Westphal

Students worked under the direction of South Pointe teachers Carlo Dawson and Ashley Beard.

Art students from South Pointe High School, along with Beard, will help apply entries to sidewalks using stencils and exterior paint.

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry with 17 syllables in three lines - five syllables in the first and third lines and seven syllables in the second.

Project sponsors are Bev Carroll, attorney, Colleen Cousens, Martin Goode, Overhead Station, Synergy Yoga, and Tattooed Brews.

During April, sponsors will provide prizes to anyone who finds a Haiku poem hidden in small boxes at their businesses and reads it aloud.  Original Haiku poems to be used for the promotion can be submitted to Harriet Goode at harrietgoode@me.com.

"The Women's Art Initiative wanted a special way to celebrate the naming of Rock Hill's first Poet Laureate and thought the best way to accomplish this was to invite high school students to write Haiku poetry for downtown sidewalks," said artist Harriet Goode, who is leading the project. "We are grateful for the Rock Hill City Council's support, as well as the enthusiastic endorsement from the Rock Hill School District."

Also, during National Poetry Month, pizza boxes at Little Caesars,  Mario’s Pizza, Papa John’s, and Papa Murphy’s, all in Rock Hill,  will feature Haiku written by four student winners. The  Poetry and Pizza project is sponsored by the Rock Hill Poet Laureate  Committee and includes poetry by Andrea J'nai Gordon, Spencer Hall,  Logan Hilton and Sydney Westphal. 

The nonprofit WAI recently announced the commissioning of "Endless Possibilities: Past, Present and Future" by artist/designer Carrie Gault of Floyd, Va. The sculpture, to be placed at the entrance of Comporium's Telephone Museum on Elk Avenue, will depict a teacher with students representing technology through time. Mosaic tiles will illustrate Rock Hill's history while fiber optics light the piece at night.

Gault also provided mosaic fabrication at the Freedom Walkway on Main Street.

Support for this project is provided in part by the Arts Council of York County Small Grants Program, the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC, Comporium Communications, and the SC Arts Commission, which received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.