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What are these funky signs in Downtown planters, along sidewalks, etc.?

Downtown Tulsa Partnership partnered with Magic City Books and the Woody Guthrie Center to decorate Downtown Tulsa with poetry communicating Downtown’s vibrancy and inclusivity. Haiku submissions were solicited among Downtown stakeholders, and 10 were selected, printed on 150 art boards, and temporarily installed in the public right-of-way throughout Downtown.

Who are the winners?

Judges selected the following 10 haiku winners, who will be recognized at the first-ever Curbside Haiku Poetry Night on Thursday, March 23, at the Woody Guthrie Center. Their work will be on display along Downtown streets for the next 30-45 days.

Who created the cool background?

Downtown Tulsa Partnership commissioned Tulsa artist Dawn Tree to design a backdrop for the winning haiku.

Dawn is a Tulsa-based artist, entrepreneur, and activist who works in various mediums. Dawn's pieces often provoke thoughts of community, humanity, spirituality, and connections of present and past. Watch this video to hear Dawn explain this year's Curbside Haiku art in her own words.

Where can I find the art boards in Downtown?

Art boards can generally be found along Downtown Tulsa's most walked corridors. Be sure to take photos of your favorite haiku and tag Downtown Tulsa Partnership on social media!

What about the poets who didn't win?

With over 100 entrants, selection was a difficult choice. Here are the other submissions that met entry requirements:

Arising from green
Our past collides with future
Where pain stood, now an embrace
— R.J. Hammerbottom

It's the promise of
A rainbow of macarons:
Matcha ... Peach ... perfection.
— Tara Rittler

People walk freely,
Rich or poor, Downtown
Now includes us all.
— Katy L. Casillas-Gray

Expensive condos,
Art of all kinds, eat, work, play,
Tulsa reimagined.
— Katy L. Casillas-Gray

Want the real? Go Downtown.
Downtown is where the People be who they are.
Downtown beats, marches, vibes. This city.
— Annie Heartfield Hartzog

Street music plays loud.
A new dance on Guthrie Green.
Tulsa evening dream.
— Jackie Havens

Topeca Coffee
Aroma of the work day
Comfort in a cup
— Devon Devers

Meet in Art District
Center of the Universe
The Heart of Tulsa
— Melinda McLane

Always enthralling
Your Art Deco Downtown
Visitor welcome
— Brian Preston

Valkyrie barman sighs,
Points the confused,
To the Bull in the Alley.
— Roni Mathews

Acknowledge each person as
they walk by. Feel the sense of
brotherhood under this Tulsa sky.
— Bill McCloud

Sunshine and clear skies …
Construction progress soars.
Call the movers babe!
— Tricia Price

Walking down lighted path,
Wave to three and help a fourth
Friends … just … everywhere!
— Tricia Price

Neighbors all good friends.
Must have game night soon, so fun
Bring it, time to play!
— Tricia Price

Skyline filled with architectural diversity
    Buildings rest upon Creek’s sleeping souls
        Awakens joy to all spirits
— Suzanne Bruce

Musical city
Flying fiddles, stomp a foot
Celebrate T-town!
— Tricia Price

Freakin’ Cain’s Ballroom
Make us crazy, light us up
The joint delivers!
— Tricia Price

Stallone doesn’t know ...
He missed an awesome cool town
Goodbye Tulsa King!
— Tricia Price

Like bright stars in night’s sky
    Fine food — Music — Art
        Hearts gather and smiles shine
— Suzanne Bruce

All that you encounter while
walking through this beautiful
city becomes you in the end  
— Bill McCloud

Let’s hold hands and
walk and then
meet here tomorrow
and walk again  
— Bill McCloud

Cacophony of Downtown:
Your life in motion
All music, no noise
No matter the definition
— Kathleen Wolf Davis

A Gathering place.
Rising from streets once burned black
Spirit shouts, “WE BACK!”
— Vondell J. Burns

Hugging the Arkansas
Aglow, Blue Dome District
Where Greenwood sings in the night
Where we carry light into tomorrow
— Abby Rush, T-Town

Here, where I stitched together history
Not at school,
But on Brady facing North
That old feeling ever gleaming
— Abby Rush, Heart and Light

Call me home
When I’m low
To where Indian Territory and Black Wall Street
Made angels who cease to sing
— Abby Rush, Call Me There

Windsongs. A calmer
Blooming. The world ready for
You. Fresh trains passing.
— Max Nobel

Deco to Cains to Greenwood
We’ve got rock & roll or
Country & soul to astound you
— Pati Wilson

Tornadoes and that
Giant cinnamon role made
of steel down the road.
— Seth Williston

Downtown Tulsa is
Something for everyone and
Only missing YOU
— Jessica Powers

Tulsa is home to many.
Race riots ravaged the city! Black Wall Street!
Birds fell, people ran; SAFETY!
— Christine Michelle

Music, history,
Sports, arts, church, eat, drink, dance, read
Find it all Downtown
— Sharryn Dotson

Laughing and smiling,
the art deco shouts loudly
“You are safe with me.”
— Jack Whitney

BOK, ONEOK Field, Guthrie Green too,
Restaurants, PAC — who needs haiku?
— Anthony Dale Brown

Sing; your sturdy tongue
lifts the bridge of our city
into its next key.
— Zachary Brett Reeves

Green tipped spire top
Neon smiles, nightlife thrums
Guthrie all around
— Bailey Rodfield

Rocks on its buildings.
A Geologist City.
Oil beneath her streets.
— Claude E. Bolze

Spring is here!
Along the Downtown curbs
A blooming haiku
— Sebastian Chrobak

Live music, food, fun
Fine arts, sports teams, parks, bars
History, future
— Angela Sparkman

A parking meter
Will never discriminate
Neither should you all.
— Angela Sparkman

Sun comes out again
Bends and breaks are whole again,
So, too, will I mend
— Kyle Price

Downtown Tulsa where memories are made, roads are paved.
You can start on 1st Street and work your way up.
— Tanyail Wiley

Delightful, Organic, Wonderful, Nostalgic,
Towers, Original, Welcome, Nonstop, TULSA
— Tanyail Wiley

life, full of motion
architecturally unique
reflecting value
— Kate Cofer

Freakin’ Cain’s Ballroom
make us crazy, light us up …
the joint delivers!
— Tricia Price

CAIN’S, VANGUARD, LOWDOWN
and OUTRAGEOUS GOOD TIMES  
                          …are synonymous!
— Tricia Price

Tulsa blooms in spring
Colorful JaZzY playground
Lit up like night sky!
— Tricia Price

Tulsa Symphony
Joyous, vibrant, inspiring
Bring it Vivaldi!
— Tricia Price

Park benches beckon
It's another bright Spring day
Dashing out for lunch
— Jewell Hunt

He tells his stories
Shoeshines, Saturday breakfasts
Teaching the children
— Jewell Hunt

Saturday strolling
Books and coffee calling us
We browse and linger
— Jewell Hunt

High-rises glisten
After the rush hour shower
We're hopping puddles
— Jewell Hunt

Woke Brave Unafraid
Glorious Majestic Lights
Art Music Dance Love
— Stephanie Janét

Self-care on the block
Mi Tea and Black Wall Street Liquid Lounge
Is superior self-care
— Clarissa Brown

Downtown is alive
Mix ages, races, sexes
Our community
— Margo Mitchell

Tulsa’s music scene
A welcoming community
For all people and genres
— Melinda Bellatti

Cheer on the Drillers.
Eat, drink, and laugh with family.
Perfect Tulsa night.
— Lori Lalli

Delicious coffee.
Architectural beauty.
Drink up. Soak it in.
— Lori Lalli

Downtown Tulsa thrives
Colors, cultures intertwine
Warm welcomes abound
— Sheena Kay

Traffic noise and chatter
Happy breeze and music
Art, smiles, walking — heart singing
— Linda Maloney

Ev’ry type of food
For ev’ry type of people.
Dining paradise.
— Lori Lalli

Downtown Dreams
Broadway
Magic City Nights
Archer to Brady
Lefty's on Greenwood
Elex Boyd
The Walking Smile Lights
— Christopher William Short

No matter who we are,
birds sing, music still plays,
and the people of Tulsa come together as one.
— Scarlett Nowicki

Even a seed falls
before it begins to grow.
Dust off. You will bloom.
— Audra Leonard

An orange leaf lands beside me.
I look up and see shops owned by LGBT.
And hear shouts of glee.
— Emily Grace Holloman

History alive
From the dust. We heal. We rise.
Honor them. Teach truth.
— Jennifer Solis

When I walk around
There's unfamiliar faces
I think they're hungry
— Emily Vickers

from grey to blue skies
Tulsans stand up and rise!
the scissor tail flies
— Jon Sherrell

Often trying
Sometimes missing
Rarely hitting all the marks
History divides
A changing Tulsa
Efforts continue
To include all people
— Tracy Nettleship

Black gold, Greenwood, red hot
Cool blues at the Low down
Climb, jive, style, scrape skies
— Krista Waldron

the Downtown Tulsa,
place of opportunity
a community.
— Hudson

Blend of new and old,
Busy streets, different lives
Towering higher
— Hannah Ann Martin

A small corner shop
A tall towering building
that is our Tulsa
— Katie Logsdon

Stars dance madly through the cosmos,
a centifrigal force whirling and swirling,
summoning us to the Center of the Universe
— Susan Carol Vineyard

Lights dim, notes ring out
Filled to rafters, floor bowing
Encore memories
— Shonday Randall, Cain’s Ballroom

Mural colors pop, showering all with color.
I look around seeing all sorts of people.
I'm taken aback. It's beautiful.
— Evelyn Cadie Fowler

Soapberries blonde. Sun litters
trails like new beginnings. The possibility
of self-sufficiency in every handful
I have space to hold.
— Crystal Stone, Tulsa, February

The buildings colorful and vibrant,
the roads full of different people,
everything inclusive, thus is paradise.
— Miles Tindell

So much history,
Why is it such a mystery? 
— Faith Kelly, Tulsa's Past

A community and things to see,
Keep reaching out and finding new things
— Faith Kelly, Tulsa Experiences

A place to explore,
so much to see and so much more
— Faith Kelly, Tulsa Adventures

So many places yet to explore,
I keep finding more and more
— Faith Kelly, Tulsa Districts

Good friends and good company, and all I want to do is sing
— Faith Kelly, Dueling Pianos

New places to go and people to meet,
Keep finding discovery
— Faith Kelly, Keep Finding Things

2023 Curbside Haiku Partners