Matthew Burgess and the 'Serious Play' of His Poetry Urban Mural Project

Poet and Brooklyn College professor Matthew Burgess is "pumped" about his vision-come-true, the Poetry Urban Mural Project (PUMP), writes Robert Jones Jr. for BC News. "The vibrant mural takes up an entire wall between two doorways inside David A. Boody Intermediate School 228 in Gravesend, Brooklyn," writes Jones. "The artist, Josh Cochran, designed it in response to poems written by eighth-grade English students taught by Natalie Nuzzo '11, '13 M.A. It is a precise example of the collaboration and conversation between literature and the visual arts that Burgess envisioned when he dreamed up the idea." More:

PUMP is the culmination of Burgess's academic and artistic aspirations. It doesn't yet have a formal, repeatable structure, but Burgess is trying to find both the time and resources to make that happen, and also get the word out about the potential of the project. Merging two passions, art and poetry, he seeks to create and transform public spaces into something that speaks to—and hopefully inspires—the larger community. And what is created is its own kind of beauty, with both a mature seriousness and a clear childlike whimsy ("serious play" is a hallmark of Burgess' teaching strategy), something that recalls the innocence of childhood even as it speaks to the realities that children in urban spaces have to regularly navigate. The latter, in particular, is a political statement that sometimes inspires criticism of the project.

"These murals do not please everyone," Burgess says. "Transforming a blank wall into a work of art can be a political act. They make a statement about what we value. So it's not simple. Some people like walls. Our current administration likes walls. When you paint on a wall, and you paint something vibrant, colorful, exuberant, joyful, and unifying—that will irk some people. Some are interested in dividing and separating and keeping things uniform. These murals challenge that desire. They are celebrations of imagination and aliveness."

Burgess, a Southern California native deeply inspired by the works of artist Keith Haring and poet E. E. Cummings, began exploring the relationship between poetry and the visual arts while taking word and image courses at Naropa University. Burgess previously published a children's book on the life of Cummings titled, Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings and is currently collaborating with Josh Cochran on a picture book about the life of Haring to be released in fall 2019. Burgess says he further developed interest in teaching poetry to young people, which he says "electrified" him, when he came to Brooklyn College and participated in programs which exposed high school students to poetry.