The Zionsville Cultural District, in partnership with the Town of Zionsville, has announced the winners of the culture district’s annual Sidewalk Poetry Contest.
This year’s contest included youth 17 and under. The ZCD modified the contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic, removing the entry fee and limiting it to youth participants. As a result, this year’s contest drew 33 youth entries, a record number, according to ZCD Sidewalk Poetry Contest Committee Chairwoman Adela Creasy.
“We wanted to allow them a voice during this time for them to document their feelings and the times around them,” Creasy said. “The contest itself is further meant to promote public art, but it is also a way for us to kind of have more of a cultural experience within the Zionsville area.”
The 2020 first-place student poet was Charlotte Bricker, 10. She recently completed fourth grade at Union Elementary School. Her poem reads as follows:
“The sun is rising.
Colors fill the sky.
They soar and they dance. Stars slip away.
Sunlight piercing the dark.
All is very quiet.”
The second-place student poet was Talia Diffendal, 10, who recently completed fifth grade at Z-West Middle School. Her poem reads as follows:
“The aged home on the corner,
oh, the changes it has weathered. A gentle pull and a tug,
on the heartstrings tethered.
Cherished over generations,
Fond memories gathered.”
“We are thankful for the Zionsville Cultural District’s partnership in turning our sidewalks into works of art,” Zionsville Mayor Emily Styron stated. “This annual tradition surprises and delights both residents and visitors to our town. Our young poets’ words will live on in our community for decades to come.”
The winning poems will be imprinted into sections of sidewalk in conjunction with the Zionsville Street & Stormwater Dept’s. ongoing sidewalk repair schedule. A final location hasn’t been determined as of press time for the winning poems. Past winners are not collected in a single location, but Creasy said she and the ZCD want to create a map to mark the locations of this year’s two selected poems and the eight previous poetry winners.
A ceremony will be held in the fall once the stamps are set, Creasy said.
