Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2018SYR12
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Poem Inspiration Location
Cold in Syracuse
poster information
Description
Cold in Syracuse
I need the blues to warm me
Summer is for jazz
Syracuse is a wonderful music town. We have all kinds of music festivals in the summer: the Jazz festival, the NY State Blues Festival, and others, but there's not too much in the winter. I'm one of the co-founders of the Syracuse Acoustic Blues festival, and when we first started it about five years ago, I wrote a song to help promote it. The name of the song is Cold in Syracuse. When I received the announcement about poetry submissions to the Syracuse Poster project, I had just played this song, so it became the inspiration. The winter, that's when you feel like you need some music!
The haiku, “Cold in Syracuse, I need the blues to warm me, Summer is for jazz” spoke out to me immediately. My time in the Salt City has taught me so much about art and myself. Besides my artistic development, I disliked being here since my first winter freshman year. Music always felt like an escape from the tundra to me. This is why I related so much to this haiku. I belong in a place where the sun kisses everyone's skin. With all these feelings in mind, I decided to illustrate a homeless man I saw playing a saxophone on Marshall Street. I felt he embodied the resilience of warm weather and soul, while at the same time bringing awareness to the homeless in Syracuse.