When Community Comes Together Creatively: Substack Global Blackout Poetry Exchange Collection

More than thirty inspiring images of various styles of found poetry from some of the participants in this exchange

I really loved the experience of collaborating with Monique Mulligan to set up a blackout poetry exchange between over forty different people here on Substack. Everyone came to it with different levels of experience in the art form, different ideas of what to create, and their own different backgrounds, and everyone really showed up and connected through creative making.

I love that people just jumped right in and said, “yes, I want to create something to send in the mail to a stranger.” Just because. Not for marketing or for monetizing or for anything other than just creative connecting. It was beautiful to be a part of.

I dove in and created a collage art poetry page for each participant. And then I used old calendars to create envelopes to ship them off in (well, the international ones used regular envelopes, but still). And it reminded me so much of when I created zines and friendship books and mail art with all of my pen pals decades ago. You can see some of what I created here and here:

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And I absolutely love what Monique made:

And today I want to share with you the images that I received from the participants who sent them to me before mailing off their work. I was truly amazed by everyone’s unique creativity and I really believe that each of these is exactly perfect the way that it is. Enjoy the inspiration from Starbie B., Allegra Chapman, Rikki Horvatic, Meg Greene Malvasi, Reflections-Claire Milne, Doro’s Cartoons, Ange Disbury, CL Carney, Isabella Ann, Kim Cofield, Kate Brennan, Jennifer Moore, Woz Flint, Wake Lloire, Lisa Bolin, Caitlin Gemmell, Miao Olivar, Kate Horowitz, Wendee Lee, Rachel Shenk, Kayla Brethauer, Katy Baldock, Sky, Jenn Zuko, Elliot Lessing and Ruth Reid.

THANK YOU to everyone who chose to participate in this, who spread the word, who gave encouragement. And thank you especially to Monique Mulligan for joining me in turning this idea into reality through our collaboration.