I’m not much of a poet, but I love getting the chance to work with other creative ladies, and April was all about poetry… and with local poet, it’s also about pizza.

This was the second year of Steph’s annual project, Pizza Poems PGH. Last year she worked with her students at Brashear High School to write poetry and make illustrations inspired by pizza. A few weeks ago we set aside an afternoon to make pizza stamps, write poetry about pizza, and of course, eat pizza. It took a little coercing to get the kids interested in poetry, but the results were really awesome. I had the kids make the stamps with craft foam hot glued to pieces of cardboard and foam core… Pizza was the perfect inspiration to get them thinking about printmaking in layers. Sauce, cheese, crust, toppings… easy ways to think about building up layers of color, and flavor!

Last week was the event, we partnered with a local food truck, Driftwood Oven. Their pizza is seriously my weakness. We set up a table next to the food tent and as people enjoyed their pies and beer, Steph and I encouraged them to make some printed pizza patches and contribute to a collaborative poem. It was a pretty great evening. 

The following day just happened to be Poem in Your Pocket Day, a national initiative where everyone is encouraged to keep a poem in their pocket to read or distribute. Another fab collaboration came about as a result of Steph’s shower realization from the week before. “What if we made poetry fortune tellers!” So, that’s exactly what we did! Steph picked the poets and poems to be featured in the cootie catcher, and I designed the actual artifact. I made about 100 copies and spent a chunk of time folding them… my 5th grade self was giddy at the thought of folding fortune tellers at work. Available at the front desk of the library and the neighboring tea shop, our funky take on Poem in Your Pocket went home with a bunch of excited poetry-lovers.

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The PDF is available here for anyone who wants to print one and make it themselves!