Walking around the East Colfax neighborhood may feel a bit stifling, particularly along Syracuse or Yosemite Street and Colfax itself.
Cars speed by. Construction blocks lanes and, in many spots, sidewalks don't exist.
But if you take a deep breath and look around, you might notice some colorful electrical boxes and random metal plaques along your path. On them are written words from members of the community.
"This is how we can prevail! This is how we can improve. Occupy the street. This is for me! This is for you!" reads a message from community leader Christian Steward.
The boxes are part of the East Colfax Storywalk, a walking tour, poetry display and art installation, presented by Sidewalk Poets, a nonprofit that hosts writing workshops for underserved communities, focused on healing through writing. The tour is also designed in a way to bring attention to traffic safety in an area where wrecks are common and pedestrians and cyclists have been hurt.
Sidewalk Poets was formed by Abby Templeton Greene and Courtney Morgan, two teachers and writers looking to make writing more accessible.
Templeton Greene said she worked for Denver Public Schools for about 17 years and whenever she would bring up poetry or writing, the kids would plead with her not to cover it.
"There was such resistance and fear," Templeton Greene said. "[Writing and poetry] has always been communicated as an inside club... If you don't understand [William Butler] Yeats, then you're not a poet. But I think of the word poetry as just another word for magic, almost. The poetry in the breeze. The poetry in the beautiful little flower thing in my latte."
Writing, Morgan said, at base level is a way for folks to express themselves and tell their own stories, though it's a practice that can feel exclusive. Giving people access to writing and encouraging them to let it all out on the pages regardless of syntax, spelling, structure or content, Morgan said, is freeing in its own way and an act of healing.
With Sidewalk Poets, the goal was to create a space where the rules of writing don't really matter. Come and write what you want and what you can is their message.
"There's elitism around what poetry is and what writing is and who can do, who's good at it...whose stories and voices are valued," Morgan said. "Sidewalk Poets is about making writing accessible and making writing a mental health support. It's healing. It's empowering, telling your own story and being witnessed and heard. The power that brings and the sense of belonging and community is really at the heart of the type of workshops and writing programs we're trying to do."
Sidewalk Poets got off the ground, hosting workshops throughout East Colfax and at Ashley Elementary school.
That's where Maria Corral learned about the group. Corral worked with Templeton Greene at Ashley and was invited to join a workshop.
Corral said she was hesitant because her learning and writing experiences weren't pleasant or inclusive growing up. Corral, born in Mexico, came to the U.S. in fifth grade. She didn't speak English and learning it wasn't easy.
"Not knowing any words in English, I wanted to run out of the school and ask my dad to take me back," Corral said. "I was low on reading and writing and I had a fear of reading and writing...I have an image of my white teacher. I was writing something and she moved my pencil. She took it away from me. She said 'This is not how you do it.' I still have that image in my brain."
The idea of taking a workshop around writing haunted Corral and she denied the invite.
But one day, Corral tried it and the experience changed her whole outlook on writing. Corral said she was able to write in English and Spanish. She could make mistakes. She could tell the stories out loud in both languages without feeling like she was being judged or corrected. There were no red pens in this space to harshly cross out words.
It was almost a form of therapy.
“I love writing now. It gave writing a different meaning other than I’m the Maria that came to the United States knowing nothing. Not a word in English and being criticized by my teachers,” Corral said. “It was almost therapy for me. When I started working with Abby, she made me feel worth it. Like I belong here…You made writing have a different meaning. I could write whatever I want. It was in my own language and you didn’t correct it with the red pen.”
The East Colfax Storywalk was Morgan and Templeton Green’s way of taking Sidewalk Poets to the next step and giving even more people access to poetry.
Morgan and Templeton Greene received a $10,000 grant through Denver Arts and Venues’ P.S. You Are Here program, which supports community and neighborhood-led outdoor art projects.
Through workshops, they collected poems and stories from community members around East Colfax, from young students to neighborhood leaders, that would be featured on the installations.
“The goal of the walk is to highlight voices, amplify voices, highlight stories and language equity,” Templeton Greene said.
The Storywalk installations feature 10 colorfully wrapped electrical boxes and 10 signs along the choose-your-own-path tour. Some of the poems were also recorded and can be heard through scanning the QR codes on the electrical boxes. Morgan said you can start anywhere and there are three loops.
The main route hits all of the markers, spanning about three miles and forming a square from Syracuse to Yosemite Street between 12th and 19th Avenues.
Then there are two smaller loops: one starting from McNichols Park to Verbena Park, the other from Verbena Park to New Freedom Park.
Along the routes, you’ll see the poems and stories written by participants.
One of the signs near McNichols Park is from Ashley Elementary fourth-grader Ny’Eemah, who wrote an “Ode to Cheese Puffs.”
“I eat them while watching the mist
I eat them because they’re crisp
Crunch, crunch, munch, munch
Oh, how I love cheese puffs!”
Corral’s poem, titled “Hierbabuena” or “Peppermint/Spearmint,” is also in McNichols Park. It’s based on Corral’s memories of her mom giving her peppermint tea when she felt ill. The poem is written in Spanish and was translated to English.
“Cuando mi estómago se sentía débil, con ganas de vomitar, ella me pedía salir al frente del duplex azul para agarrar aquella hierba verde que cuando hervía en agua llenaba nuestro hogar de un olor rico y sano,” it reads, recalling Corral’s memory of being asked to go outside to pick her own tea leaves and the aroma that filled the house when the tea was brewed.
Sidewalk safety was also a reason for putting together a walking tour.
Cars speed down sideroads and on the main corridors throughout the East Colfax neighborhood and in some sections, pedestrians can’t get away from the cars because there are no sidewalks or the sidewalks are pushed up against the street.
To make the guided walking tour as safe as possible, Templeton Greene and Morgan took a walking safety-training through Walk2Connect, to make sure they knew how to cross roads safely and how to corral the group when they needed to step into the street when the sidewalks disappeared.
“The walk is also about highlighting pedestrian inequities,” Templeton Greene said. “Safety is a huge concern in this neighborhood because there’s no sidewalks…It sucks for people who live here. The safety of getting to school, getting to the park. So, part of the reason we wanted to do this communal walk was to highlight that. To have people live it and have people who don’t live here, walk it.”
Two of the poems are located where people have died due to car crashes, including where local cyclist Steve Perkins was killed in a hit-and-run on Syracuse and 13th Avenue.
That corner features a poem written by Dolores Medina, dedicated to her brother Angel Medina who passed away in 2022 and also Perkins.
“Now the days have passed and I still hurt
Remembering the hidden look
And your last breath.
See you soon, brother!”
The East Colfax Storywalk will be on display until September and Morgan and Templeton Greene plan to host more guided tours once the weather warms up.
Sidewalk Poets is also still hosting workshops, which are free to attend.
Their next event, scheduled for April 12, will be a fundraiser that will feature a word game and a silent auction at Number 38, 3560 Chestnut Pl. Ticket prices are set at $38 for advance tickets and $45 at the door. The ticket includes a drink, appetizer, entrance into the game, and a tax-deductible donation. Additional drinks and food can be purchased at the event.
Both Morgan and Templeton Greene said all are welcome at any future workshop and nobody should be nervous. There's usually free coffee, tea and perhaps a therapy session through writing. They also encourage folks to walk around East Colfax and check out the art. Be safe on the walk and learn about the residents through their work.
"I think this neighborhood has been a forgotten, pushed out neighborhood for so long and part of the walk is celebrating and highlighting the greatness that is right here...I think so many people drive by and they see the drugs and the homeless but I also want them to see the kids and families here," Templeton Greene said. "We love Cheetos and we have all the same emotions as other neighborhoods."
