A storefront haiku in Lexington
Carol Davidson with master sign painter Kenji Nakayama shows off her haiku at Eye Look in Lexington Center. (Courtesy of Cecily Miller)

This spring Lexington Council for the Arts sponsored a large-scale public art project, which brings original haiku poetry to storefront windows up and down Massachusetts Ave. Known as the Neighborhood Haiku Project, it links Lexington Center and East Lexington. The dynamic  installation will be on view through September.

Haiku is a short, three-line poem – 17 syllables max – offering a fun and challenging form to capture a moment or memory. These poems are hand-painted on storefront windows here in Lexington. 

Community members and others submitted over 200 haiku poems. The jurors who specialized in haiku poetry selected 35 poems. Children wrote six of the winners. The 35 haiku poems are hand-painted on storefront windows here in Lexington. 

On Tuesday, July 12, 6-8 PM, Lexington  will celebrate its haiku winners  with live music by Betty’s Bounce, a jazz trio performing American and Gypsy Jazz, folks reading their haiku poems and tours of the storefront haiku.  

Cary Library, Lexington Historical Society, Munroe Center for the Arts, and Lexington Community Education provided interactive, participatory, and fun workshops on how to write haiku in May. Master sign painter Kenji Nakayama instructed the 17-artist volunteer team window in painting techniques. 

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