Many thanks to all who came out to Celebrate and applaud the winners of the Haiku Project Contest.
The Ivy Hill Cemetery Historical Preservation Society generously underwrote the cash prizes and the Old Town North Community Partnership and the Canal Center are cohosting the Celebration of the Haiku Project on Saturday, October 14th.
Look for Placards featuring winning haiku from the Haiku Project in Old Town North, the City of Alexandria’s Arts and Cultural District with other neighborhoods soon to follow.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Click on the image above to view the Haiku Project Booklet
or
download PDF file here
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the Spring of 2023, Old Town North Community Partnership Business Member, River’s Edge Yoga, and Alexandria City Poet Laureate Zeina Azzam applied for and received a grant from the Alexandria Office of the Arts Business and Arts Collaborative Grant to work together to create the Haiku Project.
The Office of the Arts created the Business and Arts Collaborative Grant with American Rescue Protection Act funds to encourage businesses and artists or arts organizations within Alexandria to collaborate and create new projects celebrating the arts.
The funding from the grant from the Office of the Arts allowed River’s Edge Yoga and Azzam to bring the Haiku Project, introducing the traditional art of haiku to the public “I have been hoping to bring this kind of haiku experience to Alexandria and the grant allowed us to join forces and make these creative impulses a reality,” said Azzam.
The Haiku Project kicked off with a workshop led by a haiku poet introducing the “Art of Haiku” to residents of Alexandria.
The workshop led up to the Haiku Project Contest encouraging submissions of haiku from poets throughout the DMV. Over 200 haiku were submitted and after being reviewed by three experienced judges in the field, 12 haiku were selected. The 12 winning haiku have been printed on placards, which will be displayed in various neighborhoods in Alexandria including, Old Town North, Alexandria’s Arts and Cultural District over the next year.
A booklet has been created including the winning haiku and 13 additional haiku, to commemorate the Haiku Project.
A celebration of the winning haiku and their authors occurs on October 14th at the Canal Center Art Gallery from 4:30-5:30 pm. The Haiku Project Contest winners will be awarded a prize certificate, some with cash awards, and will read their winning haiku. The additional haiku poets will read their poems as well.
The Ivy Hill Cemetery Historical Preservation Society generously underwrote the cash prizes and the Old Town North Community Partnership and the Canal Center are cohosting the Celebration of the Haiku Project on Saturday, October 14th.
The celebration is open to the public.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Haiku Project in Alexandria Names Contest Winners
September 7, 2023
River’s Edge Yoga and Alexandria Poet Laureate Zeina Azzam are pleased to announce the winners of the Haiku Contest, which is part of the ongoing Haiku Project funded by the City of Alexandria’s Office of the Arts Business and Arts Collaborative Grant. Three judges with vast experience in haiku writing and education—Abigail Friedman, Cathy Hailey, and Miho Kinnas—selected the 12 winning haiku out of a total of 226 submissions.
Azzam and Margaret Townsend, owner of River’s Edge Yoga, were delighted with the reception to the contest. Townsend said, “I was thrilled that we had so many submissions, especially for the first time that Alexandria has hosted a contest of its kind.” Azzam added, “This tells me that there is a lot of interest in poetry in our communities, and that haiku is a wonderful expression of how we perceive the world around us.”
With the theme “Our Natural World,” the Haiku Contest was open to writers in Alexandria as well as to those in the larger Washington, DC metropolitan area. There were three submission categories: adults, students in grades 6-12, and students in grades 1-5. The Ivy Hill Cemetery Historical Preservation Society was most generous in underwriting the contest prizes.
The Adults category winners were as follows: 1st Place ($150) Jillinda Glenn (Alexandria, VA); 2nd Place ($100) Sean Felix (Hyattsville, MD); 3rd Place ($50) Nancy Lopez (Alexandria, VA); 4th Place ($25) Kathy Shuey (Alexandria, VA); Honorable Mention Jonathan Lewis (Alexandria, VA); and Honorable Mention Pamela Mathison Levitt (Rockville, MD).
The Grades 6-12 category winners were 1st Place ($100) Annabella McDowell (Alexandria, VA); 2nd Place ($50) Adrienne Moseley (Alexandria, VA); and Honorable Mention Eliza Shearer (Alexandria, VA).
The Grades 1-5 category winners were 1st Place ($100) Autumn Perry (Alexandria, VA); 2nd Place ($50) Satyen Pal (Rockville, MD); and Honorable Mention Tazi O’Hair (Alexandria, VA).
Winning haiku have been printed on signboards that are being placed in different areas of Alexandria for a period of time so that community members can enjoy the poems as they go about their daily lives. The placement of the haiku placards is intended to celebrate poetry widely and foster a feeling that poetry is part of the community.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Public Haiku Comes to Alexandria
River’s Edge Yoga and Alexandria Poet Laureate Zeina Azzam are delighted to announce that they have received funding for a Haiku Project through the City of Alexandria’s Office of the Arts Business and Arts Collaborative Grant. They are working in collaboration with the Old Town North Community Partnership to develop and implement a public haiku program that involves and benefits Alexandria’s community.
“I have been hoping to bring this kind of haiku experience to Alexandria, and the grant allows us to join forces and make these creative impulses a reality,” says Azzam. Margaret Townsend, owner and director of River’s Edge Yoga, adds, “The idea of working together to further the arts in our City, especially in Old Town North, is wonderful. I am excited to partner with Zeina to reach out to our community with the art of haiku.”
This multi-pronged project starts with two workshops for Alexandria residents that introduce the art of haiku, one for adults including students in grades 9-12, and one for students in grades 4-8. They are held at James M. Duncan Branch Library in Del Ray on May 28 and the presenter is award-winning haiku poet Abigail Friedman. A haiku contest will follow for Alexandria residents to submit their work according to specific age categories (elementary and middle school; high school; and adult). A jury of experts will decide on the winners.
Winning haiku will be printed on signboards and placed in four different areas of Alexandria for a period of time, so that community members can enjoy the poems as they go about their daily lives. The placement of the haiku placards is intended to foster a feeling that poetry is part of the community. A special event will feature the winners of the contest as well as other haiku writers; it will serve as a celebration of their literary accomplishments and a way to hear each other’s haiku in a nurturing and inviting environment. Finally, Zeina Azzam will be gathering many of the haiku into a booklet that she will edit and publish as a culmination of the Haiku Project. This tangible and lovely record of the haiku experience can be disseminated widely way beyond the life of the project itself.
Through this endeavor, Azzam aims to foster an appreciation of haiku, and poetry in general. She and Townsend feel that by bringing haiku to the neighborhoods in Alexandria, such public cultural expression will enrich the artistic sensibilities of Alexandrians. “Reading and writing haiku about nature, interpersonal connections, and many other subjects that matter to us develops our sense of art, creativity, wonder, and interconnectedness,” says Azzam.