Bus Stop Fiasco

Here are the before and after pictures of the short-lived bus stop experiment.

The first phot was taken at 2 p.m. on March 29. A nearby man eyed the poetry board suspiciously but made no move to engage with it. When I passed by at 8 p.m. the board was in the same place, without any poetry made. Two women stood waiting for their bus, ignoring the display.

The second photo was taken at 8 a.m. on March 30 -- the display had been stolen! Cut from its strings and carted away! I had specifically used flimsy string -- I wanted to see if the mere indication that this display was not to be taken would be respected. Clearly not. And sadly, I anticipated this.

But what-oh-what will the perpetrator do with this single bookshelf dotted with magnetic poetry? Are we to believe that he/she took the display because he/she saw something desirable in the object itself or is it merely the fact that there was an object for the taking? As in the cases of the missing notebooks, I imagine the latter. But I'm not sure I understand.

Planned Parenthood

I came into the health clinic to pack up the display. Again, the waiting room was pretty much empty. It was kind of sad to throw the poetry into a tote bag and be done. I asked the lady behind the desk to call down my contact - she was kind of annoyed that I hadn't gone to reception but obliged. Deanna gave me the camera, which is full - I can't wait to develop the pictures. The notebook has been stolen for a second time --!!

The poetry on the board is markedly hopeful:

beneath her beautiful heart know that

always trust in romance

Koffee

I awkwardly stepped over various people sitting on couches who were working on laptops and moved their coats to collect the display of the side table. Oh, and I knocked over an (empty) coffee cup while retreating. The whole thing was quite obtrusive.

I let an employee know that I was taking the display and he told me that he thought that the project was "really cool." There are only 6 pictures left on the camera I left, so I'm excited to develop them.

The board is pretty angst-ridden and romantic:

did you say love me

was she difficult

soon they enter fear

we dream trust never

The laundromat, March 14

Today, I went in and Maria was sitting alone, watching TV in the empty laundromat.

"Quiet for once!" I said.

"Yeah," she laughed.

I stopped on the way out to get some money from the ATM. As I waited with my back to Maria, the Spanish TV Channel blared and I thought about asking her where she was from. But I had five minutes to get to run crew and so I decided to do it next time.

The board says:

The community have money but jobs wander off
and police judge black crime
people come home to crack safe
police only

The laundromat, March 8

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So I am posting this 8 days after I took the pictures and do not remember what happened when I went. But I CAN report with certainty that I could only make out one sentence on the board:

world have almost crime

The notebook saw a fair amount of activity:

Crime exploding and the police helps but who

Pretect [sic] crime now
Police come help

Crack open police crime
Help the community

Clogged drain
Clogged level line*

*I assume that this was a customer complaint unrelated to the poetry at hand. But perhaps it's a metaphor...

PPSNE

I finally saw the Planned Parenthood display at the health center. To get to it, I waited to speak to the woman behind a small glass window, who was mildly scolding the young couple in front of me for arriving late for their appointment. I stepped up with my new display and she told me to come into the waiting room, where very few people were waiting to be served.

The display was not in the place I had anticipated - rather than being out in the waiting area, it was up at the reception window, with a red typed sign that said "COMMUNITY ART PROJECT." I can't imagine that people just hang out up there much, but I feel hesitant to ask for a change of location. That's the thing about these spaces - you're just so grateful that someone will do this crazy thing for you that you don't want to push their hospitality further. So I just changed the display (I replaced it with the one that had been at the laundromat), and called upstairs to tell Deanna that I was leaving another disposable camera and the new display downstairs.

The display had also been turned around so that a vertical and a horizontal surface were available for the magnets. Here is what was on the board (the notebook, sadly, had been stolen, as previously reported):

police explode like almost though there
job help
people who crime the community give crack
only to protect police but come home
judging my world too

Koffee, March 2

I went in to see what was happening at Koffee. The display was gone from its original table and I panicked, thinking that it had been removed by the owners or stolen. It was, however, still there, but on a different table and facing the wall so that the description of the project was facing moved to a different table and I panicked, thinking it had been taken away. It was, however, facing the wall so that the description of the project was facing out rather than the words. I corrected that. Small victory.

The board says:

protect we over these smell
enter they some wisdom
dreams grow money or
police trust villain you
love could question him
never help
safe community
fear was human than do
first trust
difficult job search

The pad says:

Never trust police
Say for