How Typewriter Poetry Changed My Perspective on Art

Two years ago, my friend Alyssa asked me if I’d be willing to set up a typewriter at Bedford Greenhouses for their annual Valentine’s Day event. Knowing my passion for poetry and having seen street poets on different pockets of Instagram, she thought it would be a neat idea for me to try.

I said yes without hesitation... or at least without enough hesitation to say no. In the days that followed I bit my nails into oblivion as I learned how to type the way my parents did (with a metal contraption that makes ding sounds).

That Saturday, I set up a little table with a simple sign: “Give me a word and I’ll write you a poem.”