Art & Creative Expression
Poems left on doorsteps, with room to write back
Ινω Παριαρου plans to print thousands of papers with a poem on one side and, on the other, a quote encouraging people to write, an email and an Instagram account, with the centre left blank, and to leave them on doorsteps in small villages in Greece and in Athens.
The poem was attached to an old man's house in a village in Mani, Greece. It was anonymous. Ινω Παριαρου, on vacation in the village, noticed it while walking through and read it.
Ινω has "a deep passion for poetry" and was moved by the poem. The moment also brought an understanding. "I’m not the only person moved by poetry and in need of self expression," she says. Everyone needs to express themselves, she says, and society has made it difficult for people to connect with poetry because it is not popular.
“The center of this side of the paper will be blank and left for people to write whatever they are feeling.”
Ινω Παριαρου
What she plans to do about it involves thousands of individual papers. Ινω, a student at DES middle school, will print them with a poem of her own on one side. The other side will carry a quote encouraging people to write their own poem or thought. At the bottom will be an email address and an Instagram account where people can send their work or any message.
The papers will be left at office doorsteps, schools and shops.
With the people who write back, Ινω plans to create a group chat on several platforms to connect everyone who is interested, and to post their work if they ask for it, in order to acknowledge them. The aim is to connect people who are interested in poetry and self expression but find it difficult to share their art and feelings. Those who never get in touch will at least see the poem, or the blank page left for them to write on. Her belief is that every soul needs to study and create its own "freedom of self expression" through art.
Some of it exists already. She has created an action plan, written a poem and created a design for the papers.
The steps left are creating a social media page, finding the money to print, and printing. After that Ινω will travel to small villages in Greece and walk into the city of Athens, leaving the papers on doorsteps and apartments. The distribution and the social media side of it start properly in November.