The Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park has announced a new poetry trail that will take visitors to far-flung places in the park over the next 12 months.
The Alliance has teamed up with the Poetry Society of America to launch the new trail, which features eight poems on view throughout Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s historic core and around Meadow Lake.
“Community in Verse” will be on display at the park for a year and has been designed to create opportunities for reflection and contemplation, the Alliance said.
The installation celebrates the diverse immigrant communities that reside in neighborhoods surrounding the park, featuring English and non-English poems. Featured poems will be presented in English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and Bengali, with all non-English works presented alongside an English translation.
Poems have been sourced from contemporary poets based in New York City and around the world, the Alliance added.
Among the featured poets is Queens College Professor Kimiko Hahn, who was recently appointed New York State Poet through 2027. Hahn’s poem “Spring” can be found along Meadow Lake Path, while other poems have been installed near the iconic World’s Fair Unisphere.
Anthony Sama, the Alliance’s executive director, said the new installation simultaneously provides visitors with the opportunity for cultural enrichment and to explore areas of the park they may not have been to before.
“This is a project that not only brings new cultural and dynamic opportunities to the park, but gives park goers a chance to explore areas of the park that they may not have visited previously,” Sama said in a statement “There is so much to Flushing Meadows Corona Park and we want people to feel confident exploring this iconic green space in a surprising and reflective way.”
Matt Brogan, executive editor of the Poetry Society of America, said he new poetry trail would bring poetry to one of the most “beautiful and vibrant spaces in New York City.”
“The featured poems reflect the remarkable diversity of area residents and park visitors, as well as the park’s legacy of celebrating global culture, with poets from Jackson Heights to Ecuador to Bangladesh,” Brogan said.
“We hope these installations will make poetry part of the daily lives of thousands of New Yorkers as they walk, ride bikes, skateboard, or take in the sites of the World’s Fair.”
