Artpace is an organization committed to bringing excellent local, national and international artists to San Antonio and giving them space and resources to create new work in the city (and engage the community in their process).
They also organize one of the most ambitious community engagement efforts I have yet to experience: Chalk It Up, San Antonio. In this one-day-only event, tens of thousands of San Antonians come together to chalk up one of their major downtown streets. Artists make murals, teams from local schools and organizations create team pieces and everyone is invited to add to the chalky wildness.
Guerilla Haiku was invited to spend a week in San Antonio, seeing how San Antonians could handle their 17-syllables odes to joy. They did pretty remarkably. In a week, Guerilla Haiku did 3 school events, 2 museum events, 2 college appearances, a press conference, and 6 community free-for-alls- this is all BEFORE Chalk It Up even happened.
And THEN, Chalk It Up happened… 10 hours of wild chalking, and we emerged, dusty and victorious with over 20,000 participants. Lots of inspiration, lots of good words spread 17 syllables at a time, lots of showers needed after our day of play.
Enjoy the albums.
And, San Antonio…I’ll see you next year!
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The Haiku Mistress
Actor and educator, Caley Vickerman, discovered haiku in 6th grade and they remain to this day a favorite method of expression; simple, precise and immeasurably powerful. It became her fervent wish to create events that celebrated haiku (and humanity). Thus the Guerilla Haiku Movement was born! …And the Haiku Mistress gratefully continues to celebrate! 
We are the Guerilla Haiku Movement; a cadre of artists, fun-lovers, and fools that use sidewalk chalk and the ancient Japanese poetic tradition of Haiku to tell our stories and the stories of our communities inside of one moment. Check out our events page to join us in a city near you!