Boston is home to a designated area which places an emphasis on a specific theme. The Innovation District in the city’s revived Seaport focuses almost exclusively on urban innovation and civic engagement, and has blazed the trail for other metropolitan areas nationwide to do the same. Now, there’s a proposal to appropriate another portion of Boston, aimed at highlighting The Hub’s literary roots and promoting its burgeoning bevy of belletristic writers.
On Wednesday, the Boston City Council will entertain an order for a hearing regarding the creation of a Literary Cultural District. Though the hearing is sure to incite debate, as well as showcase possible early-stage plans for establishing such an area, the idea for it was conceived last year by GrubStreet – a local, independent writing center dedicated to improving the art of wordsmithing.
According to a Boston Globe article back in October, GrubStreet led the funding charge to conceptualize a literary district by securing a “two-year $42,500 planning grant,” courtesy of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
The District is poised to become the first of its kind in the country, hosting street events, writing workshops, public art festivals and a slew of other community-driven initiatives intended to make Boston a haven for aspiring scribes.
It’s no surprise, really, that this idea continues to take hold in Boston. The city’s bountiful higher-education scene is an engine for creativity; and one has to look no further than the imminent Edgar Allan Poe statue to get a taste for its deep-seeded affinity for writing.
It’s unclear at this point in time what bounds will constitute the District, though it’s sure to include the Boston Public Library in Copley Square and the Boston Athenaeum (one of the oldest independent libraries in the country).
Ann Petruccelli, communications officer for the Cultural Council, told BostInno in an email that “historic sites, such as the home of Louisa May Alcott, and The Make Way for Ducklings Sculpture, and Tremont Temple (whose speakers included Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Dickens, and Abe Lincoln)” are also likely to be included.
“We’re thinking about branding the work that everybody is doing so that there’s one place to look for the literary arts,” GrubStreet executive director Eve Bridburg told Publishers Weekly back in April. “There’s a lot going on [in Boston] and everybody’s working in their own little silos.”
According to a Boston City Council hearing notice from May, the establishment of a Literary Cultural District was sponsored by City Councilor Ayanna Pressley. BostInno reached out directly to Councilor Pressley’s office to find out what Wednesday’s hearing will entail, but she was not immediately available to comment.
As for what’s next, Petruccelli added that an independent site advisor will visit the district “and that meeting will consist of a meeting with city officials, a tour of the proposed district, and a meeting with stakeholders and those with a vested interest in the district to discuss what they hope to achieve through the designation.”
