Group plans poetry painting on vacant Gary high school

GARY, Ind. (AP) - A community group is planning to dress up a vacant high school building in Gary with poetry.

The Gary Poetry Project is seeking poetry submissions from Emerson High School graduates to be painted onto the plywood covering up parts of the building that closed in 2008.

The Post-Tribune reports that the building has had graffiti painted over it and windows broken out before members of the nearby Progressive Community Church boarded many of them up last year.

Calumet Artist Residency secretary Sam Love says the poetry painting aims to make the building more pleasant looking.

The group is seeking about a dozen poems. It has painted three poems on the school already, with one written by some Gary high school students and two created during Indiana University Northwest workshops.

___

Information from: Post-Tribune, http://posttrib.chicagotribune.com/