This summer, the Poetry Center's vintage poetry poster collection traveled from Tucson to Chicago, to be displayed in the Poetry Foundation's gallery space.  Typically on permanent display in the Poetry Center, the installation in Chicago marks the first time the collection has traveled outside of Southern Arizona.  For more than a decade in the early part of the Poetry Center's history, the posters were used to market Poetry Center poetry readings to the Tucson community.  Collectively, the posters tell an evocative and graphically rich story of these visits to Tucson.  The posters were designed by University of Arizona art students, and when a final design was settled upon, the posters were printed using a silkscreen process.  Many of the posters in the collection bear marks indicating their orginal purpose--tape marks, or holes in the top and bottom of the poster suggesting it had once been pinned to a bulletin board or telephone pole. 

We traveled to Chicago to visit the exhibit, and Poetry Center Librarian Wendy Burk gave a lunchtime talk with April Sheridan, a printmaker and Special Projects Coordinator for the Columbia College Center for the Book and Paper Arts.  The talk related aspects of the history of the Poetry Center and the poster collection, and included unique details from the visits of poets Allen Ginsberg and Ai, poets who visited Tucson in 1969 and 1972, respectively.  Sheridan discussed posters and broadsides and the silkscreening process.  The talk ended with a hands-on demonstration of a Gocco press. 

The posters will be back in Tucson on permanent display at the Poetry Center for the Fall 2016 season.  Here are some photos from our visit to Chicago and of the exhibit and talk: