If you could say anything to Wilmington, what would it be?

Delaware Shakespeare, aka Del Shakes, is partnering with Wilmington Alliance, Brevity Bookspace and University of Delaware Partnership for Arts and Culture for an interactive community arts project.

This Sunday, April 25, from 1 to 4 p.m., you can check out “Write Outside Your Window: A Public Poetry Project to Uplift All Voices” at Wilmington’s 7th and West Streets Park.

Wilmington residents are being asked to participate by answering the question “If you could say anything to Wilmington, what would it be?” as a poem in 30 words or less. Entries will be collected at the socially distanced, contactless event, where selected poems will be performed by Del Shakes artists. Participants may also submit entries via this webform and on Del Shakes’s website.

“April is National Poetry Month, as well as being the month of Shakespeare’s birthday,” said David Stradley, producing artistic director of Del Shake, in a statement. “He lived in a city, and I think was constantly looking out the window he was writing behind and wondering what the people in his city needed to hear. I can’t wait to hear what Wilmingtonians have to say, and to share it with a broader community.”

The project is meant to bring residents of the city together during a time of quarantine, disconnect, misinformation and erasure.

“Wilmington residents are beautiful beings who deserve beautiful things,” said Saliym Cooper, founder of Brevity Bookspace, a traveling bookspace offering books by diverse authors. “We deserve to be heard. Not silenced. Not erased. Not marginalized. Right now, with all that is transpiring in the world, more space should exist in Wilmington for all residents to think, breathe, and articulate our needs. I am greatly looking forward to hearing the minds of the people from the safe space we create with ‘Write Outside Your Window.’ With the help of the poems collected, I hope we can turn rain into rainbows.”

Three of the poems gathered at the event and online will be selected and displayed this summer “in larger than life form” in Wilmington. Three honorable mentions will be shared on social media.