Rain Poetry project in Johnstown concludes with special book celebration

By Karen Price

At 17 years old, Molly Lazzari is looking at colleges and thinking about her future, which may include becoming an orthodontist.

One thing she never considered for her future before the Rain Poetry project was the idea of being a published poet. 

“It’s not an experience you would think about waking up and realizing, wow, I am a published artist,” she said. “It’s kind of crazy to think about. I’m growing up, and having my work published on the sidewalk and to have that live on is very interesting just to know that people can read it.”

Lazzari was one of dozens of young people, ranging from elementary school through high school, who took part in PA Humanities’ Rain Poetry project in Johnstown in 2024. She and her fellow poets gathered at the Cambria County Library in April to receive their copies of the booklet containing all of the poems written as part of the project in Johnstown, and celebrate the power of self-expression through haiku one more time.

“I think about the world around us and really taking that and putting it to a form like haiku and writing that down, really taking what you’re feeling and putting it down on paper, was very interesting to do,” Lazzari said. 

PA Humanities partnered with Cambria County Library and Bottle Works for the project. Teaching artists Aspen Mock, Denise Urban and Eric Schwerer taught haiku workshops at the Children’s Book Festival, the library and Bottle Works’ summer camp. The participating young people wrote poems, which were then installed last fall on the sidewalk outside of Bottle Works using a special invisible spray that only appears when wet. Poems were also featured on yard signs and as part of the library’s StoryWalk along the Iron Works Trail. While the poems are no longer featured as a public art piece, they are now all included in the booklet designed by Johnstown artist Joanne Mekis. 

Among those who joined in celebrating the young poets receiving their booklets were Cambria County Commissioners Keith Rager, Scott Hunt and Tom Chernisky, Rebecca Catelinet from Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance, and Katrina Perkosky and Emily Wood from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies.

Wood said that the Community Foundation of the Alleghenies is prioritizing the arts and happy to support public art pieces such as the Rain Poetry installation.

“It’s not something that was just put there by a couple people who decided to do it,” she said. “It’s something that the youth participated in.”

Perkosky still remembers learning about poetry in the first grade and how it sparked a love for writing. She went on to major in English. Funding projects such as this, she said, is also a part of economic development for the community, even though you might not see the effects right away.

“Communities that have public art and public art programming are places that people want to move to; they’re places that people want to visit,” she said. “And I can only imagine the confidence boost for some of these kids, to think, ‘Wow, I can be creative. I can create something that people want to see.’ It’s really special.” 

The Rain Poetry project in Johnstown was made possible by the generous support from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance from the 1889 Foundation Creative Health Impact Grant, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 ARPA PA Arts and Culture Recovery Program.