Poetry News

Hackney Hear syncs contemporary poetry to the Olympic experience

By Harriet Staff

About Hackney Hear from Hackney Hear on Vimeo.

While the last line from Tennyson’s 1833 poem “Ulysses” has been chosen to adorn the wall of the Olympic Village, the award-winning Hackney Podcast has a more modern take on incorporating poetry into the Olympics. Hackney Hear is a new project that links up over 400 audio recordings— poetry, stories and music—with GPS data as a mobile app to navigate the borough by sound.

Contributing poets so far include Iain Sinclair, Michael Rosen and Lemn Sissay with plans to commission original works from dozens more. Hackney will be the main site of the 2012 Olympics in London and the podcast producers are planning the app’s release for January to coincide with pre-game celebrations.

Tags: Hackney Podcast, Iain Sinclair, Lemn Sissay, London, Michael Rosen, Olympics
Posted in Poetry News on Monday, March 14th, 2011 by Harriet Staff.