Our mission
Poems in Passage is a public arts program
We place poetry in the transit systems and public spaces across Toronto; exposing beautiful poetry from up-and-coming local poets to thousands of viewers every day.
We were inspired by Poetry in Motion®, an initiative launched by MTA New York City Transit and the Poetry Society of America in 1992.
Toronto once had a similar program, called “Poetry on The Way”
“Poetry on The Way” ran successfully for 14 years.
“Regular passengers on the Toronto subway system are sure to be familiar with them — brief, lyric poems printed in slightly washed-out colours on large white cards that appeared amid the commercial jumble of advertising posters on TTC trains…
-Toronto Star
In 2012, the program mysteriously disappeared
’As a TTC rider, I was always a big fan,” said Alastair Cheng, managing editor of The Literary Review of Canada. “It always struck me as a great program. If it’s stopped, it would be a shame.”
In 2024, we are bringing the iconic program back to life, as Poems in Passage
The new iteration of the program will feature a range of diverse artists, modernized design, an accompanying event series, and QR codes to enable a two-way conversation between commuters and the artists/program.
