The Typewriter Project

The Typewriter Project was a series of site-specific literary installations which invited passersby to join in a citywide poetic exchange that existed in both analog and digital realms. These typewriter booths were each outfitted with a vintage typewriter, 100-foot long paper scroll, and a custom-built USB Typewriter™ kit, which allowed every keystroke to be collected, stored, and posted online for users to read, share, and comment upon. The project was largely inspired by the idea of an Exquisite Corpse, a surrealist writing game in which several authors contribute to one poem. By creating a new and unique form of public dialogue, this project hoped to capture something of the sound, narrative, and nuance of specific corners of the city. The Typewriter Project’s mission was to investigate, document, and preserve the poetic subconscious of the city while providing a fun and interactive means for the public to engage with the written word. Read some of the scrolls here.

May Day

On May Day 2020 and 2021, PSNY and Pandemic Poems paired poets up from all over the world to collaborate on a series of Pandemic Poems. Poets were given a partner, a first line, and a last line. Each pair then worked together, going line for line, to co-create a sonnet in a single day. Throughout the day each poem traveled back and forth between partners until it was complete. Following this poetry exchange, PSNY and Pandemic Poems strung these sonnets together, one after the other, into a sonnet crown (or "corona") of epic proportions!

Micro-Residencies

The Poetry Society of New York teamed up with a handful of NYC's most iconic cultural institutions, including New York Public Library, The Strand Bookstore, and City Reliquary, to give busy poets exactly what they need: a small chunk of time devoted to writing. The mission of The Micro-Residency program was to carve out that small window of time for working poets & to shine a little light on what it looks like to be a contemporary poet at work.

Poet Stream

During the COVID-19 pandemic, PSNY created Poet Stream, a literary video-chat service in which poets shared their original poetry with individuals and small audiences in homes around the globe. Users selected their preferred artists from PSNY’s international network of creators for connections profound, therapeutic, enlivening, entertaining, and probably (realistically), very slightly pixelated.

Ideal Objects

Ideal Objects was a series of product collaborations between PSNY’s design team and a poet, artist, or collective who sought to manifest their vision of that product’s formal ideal. Ideal Objects was created during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to create a opportunities for remote collaboration and to help generate income for artists who lost work.

Whispers of Rhythm

This was a thing.

Rilke Thing

This was also a thing.