Nanaimo buses are becoming roving poetry mobiles this April during National Poetry Month in Canada.
On April 9 the first bus with transit poems is being unveiled during a special ceremony at the Harbourfront Library at 1 p.m.
The bus poems are part of the Poetry in Transit Program, which was inspired by Nanaimo’s poet laureate, Naomi Beth Wakan.
“I am delighted that my suggestion that poetry should go on Nanaimo buses has been so speedily taken up and made a reality by the culture and heritage department and that it has also been embraced by Nanaimo poets who have sent their poems about riding in buses,” said Wakan in a press release.
The program is a partnership amongst the City of Nanaimo, the Regional District of Nanaimo and the Vancouver Island Regional Library.
Over the past few weeks the poets have submitted poems based on the theme riding the bus for the project.
The ceremony features a transit bus on display with selected poems and the poets who created them will be in attendance and read their work. Wakan will also be in attendance.
The program aims to allow riders of public transit to “rethink and reimagine their city through poetry,” according to the City of Nanaimo’s press release.
For more information about the program please go to www.nanaimo.ca and click on the culture and heritage tab.