You’ve reached the web page of the 100 Year Poetry Project. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because you saw it at the top of the page. We’re glad you found us and that you’re reading this.

It may sound ridiculous (it is), but the mission of the 100 Year Poetry Project is to read at least one poem in a particular location at least once per day for one century. That’s a minimum of 36,525 poems (this is being posted in a leap year, so its necessary that we take that into consideration). Hopefully it will end up being a lot more than that. We'd like to start it on April 1st, 2016 (but no, it’s no prank! Think about it… Doing this is way more ridiculous than pretending to!)

There are other missions too, but that is the big one. We’re starting this one in Austin, Texas, but if you want to start one somewhere else, please do. Wouldn’t it be great if there were poems being read everywhere every day?

We’ll put some more stuff here soon, but for now, let’s stick with the important stuff.

Part of the fun of doing this project is letting ourselves in the future look do searches and find out about all the readings that happened in the past. That means gathering information and documenting the readings. That should probalby start with a list of questions to anyone who wants to be part of this. That list is being considered now… here’s what it looks like so far...

What’s your name?
What day did this happen?
What time?
Who read the poem?
What’s the name of the poem they read?
Who wrote it?
How many people were there to listen? (it’s okay if that there was no one)
What was the weather like?
What was something interesting you noticed or that happened while you were there?
What kind of day were you having before you went there to read?
What else do you want to say about it?

There’s a balance between asking for too much information, but having enough for everyone in the future to be able to get a feel for how it went. All answers are optional of course… We will ask that people either put in real information or not reply at all, just to keep things fairly grounded. We're also wondering about asking people to give us the text of the poems. There are copyright issues though, so we're thinking on that. Opinions or advice are welcome.

Where is this going to happen? A link with a map will be up soon. We just want to be certain before we say it out loud.

In order to succeed at this mission, it will likely be necessary to create an organization that does things like scheduling performances in the future and archiving the ones that have already happened. There’s a plan for that, but we thought it might be fun to see if we could start out pretty loosely and see what happens.

Eventually, we’d also like to create a space that tells people what happens there and invites them to participate themselves. There is also a plan for that, but if we put it here now, then might not come back to find out what it is...

That's all for now... We'll start scheduling later in March. For now, bookmark this page and check back to see what happens!

Stephen Pruitt is a theatrical designer, writer, photographer, and former aerospace engineer who has been working out of Austin since 1997. In addition to being one of the co-artistic directors of Catastrophe Theory Arts, he is also the production and lighting designer for Forklift Danceworks, Tapestry Dance Company, Kathy Hamrick Dance Company, Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre, and several other dance and performance companies in Austin. He is also the resident lighting designer for Trouble Puppet Theater Company and a company member with the Rude Mechs. The idea for 100yr.org was created in 2014 on a long solo camping trip in the dessert.

For more information about 100yr.org or Catastrophe Theory Arts, or to give input about this project, please email us.

go to the main catastrophe theory arts web page