Word on the street is Cork to get poetry jukebox
Cork city centre is getting a Poetry as Commemoration jukebox, similar to the installation at St Stephen's Green, Dublin. Picture: Jason Clarke
Poems, including work by President Michael D Higgins, are set to flow from a new ‘poetry jukebox’ which has been installed in the heart of Cork City.
Word on the street about the striking blue device, which has been installed on the plaza outside the city’s main public library on Grand Parade, is spreading ahead of its official unveiling next Thursday.
The jukebox, which officials have called a commemorative sound installation, contains digital recordings of 20 poems relating to the complex history of Ireland during the War of Independence and Civil War period.
It features work by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Leanne O’Sullivan, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Eibhlís Carcione, Victoria Kennefick, Deborah Oniah, and Michael D Higgins.
Members of the public will be able to press a button and listen to any of their poems flow from the jukebox, which will remain in place until November.
The installation is part of the Poetry as Commemoration project led by the Irish Poetry Reading Archive at UCD Library and supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the state’s Decade of Centenaries Programme.
The project, which also includes new poetry commissions and an island-wide series of writing workshops, invited communities to turn to poetry as a way of understanding the challenges of the past and the possibilities of the future.
Poetry jukeboxes have been installed near the WB Yeats Memorial at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin and in Belfast’s Crescent Arts Centre and there are plans to install more in Waterford, Derry, Galway, and Limerick.
The original poetry jukebox idea was conceived and developed by Prague-based cultural activists Ondřej Kobza and Michaela Hečková.
They based the shape of the device on instruments such as a megaphone, a gramophone, or a speaking-trumpet.
They hoped that each jukebox would respond to the context in which it was placed.
There are now poetry jukeboxes in nearly 20 cities around the world, including Berlin, Brussels, Paris, New York, and Prague.
Green Party councillor Oliver Moran welcomed the installation in Cork but said he hopes it is respected given that the city’s last major sound installation was damaged by vandals.
The Listening Posts, an installation of four stainless steel beacons which played recordings of emigrants who had left Ireland from the Port of Cork, was installed along Penrose Quay in 2006 at a cost of some €100,000.
The striking sculptures were created by Daphne Wright, with the recordings element developed by Johnny Hanrahan and British sound designer Dan Jones.
However, the voices fell silent due to repeated acts of vandalism.
Mr Moran, who called some time ago for the Listening Posts to be repaired and restored, was told last year that the city council’s arts office had engaged with Ms Wright, Mr Hanrahan, and the technical team which created the installation to assess the works that were needed to restore the public artwork.
Mr Moran said he plans to follow up on the status of this and said it is very timely that this issue is looked at again, with increased pedestrian traffic from the new large-scale office and hotel developments on Penrose Quay and nearby Horgan’s Quay.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
