Monrovia city officials on Friday asked residents, local workers and students to submit original poems for the 2025 Footnotes Sidewalk Poetry Contest.
Selected poems will be permanently stamped into sidewalks across Monrovia as part of the city’s Art in Public Places program. Officials said the program aims to transform commonplace strolls through town “into moments of inspiration and reflection.”
The sidewalk poetry initiative “celebrates creativity while encouraging walkability and pride in our shared spaces,” according to the city.
Applications are open through June 27.
More information is available from Kerri Zessau, 626-932-5564 or kzessau@monroviaca.gov.
Funding for Monrovia’s Art in Public Places program comes mainly from a
fee on new land development projects, according to a city staff report. For residential projects with five or more units and costing over $1 million or commercial projects costing more than $1 million, developers are required to allocate a fee equivalent to 1% of the project cost for public art.
