Poem Booth officially opens in The Square

STEVENS POINT—Downtown Stevens Point recently gained a new art installation. The Poem Booth opened on Aug. 27 in The Square.

The Poem Booth project took an old phone booth, donated by Chris Ebert, and modified by Steve Suering, Ed Owens, and others to create an interactive piece of art. Dialing one of many programmed 4-digit numbers lets you listen to poems, historical narratives, or even pop culture references, from Edgar Allen Poe to David Lee Roth.

“The project has been several years in the making, and we’re excited to finally be able to see it installed and operational,” said Mayor Mike Wiza. “Almost everything about this was donated, and the only cost to the city was a bit of staff time. Almost a dozen people collaborated on this booth to bring it to life.”

The hope, going forward, is to have local artists record a 1-2 minute original piece of poetry or interesting historic fact and add it to the poem booth’s list of numbers. We’d love to have this piece grow each year, as we add new numbers.

“I know that some people have never seen, let alone used, a phone booth, but we hope we’ve made the instructions easy enough for everyone. Close the door, pick up the receiver, dial the four-digit number you want to hear,” continued Wiza.