Stepahnie Glazier
When Stephanie Glazier, assistant to the director for the RCAH Center for Poetry invited me to an event called  â€Walk. Chalk. Poetryâ€, I was somewhat doubtful that MSU students would take their time to write poetry on a sidewalk near Shaw Hall.Â
I was wrong. She was right. During the time I was there students eagerly grabbed a piece of sidewalk chalk and printed a preselected poem on the sidewalk abutting the Red Cedar near Shaw Hall.Â
Glazier told me that the stretch of sidewalk is called “the rape trail†even though it is one of MSU’s most beautiful stretches of riverbank. Each year RCAH has sponsored the event to encourage MSU students through the chalking of themed poems on sidewalks about space and the transformative power of language to reexamine their own use of language about this space. Doughnuts and cider were an attractive enticement and seemed to work like flies and sugar.Â
Chalk poem by Sam Mills
Most of the poems were chalked by MSU students, but Lansing poet Sam Mills showed up to chalk two poems including one of his own.       Â
Glazier said the project works because MSU students are anxious for creative outlets. Mills told me that by walking on the chalk poetry I “was taking a little of it away with me.†One MSU student on a bike confused about whether he should ride across the poems clipped a metal sign promoting the event and decided it would be better to walk his bike. It was pure poetry in motion.             Â
