Norwalk Transit District and Norwalk School District restart ‘Words in Transit’ to showcase middle school poetry

Norwalk Transit District and the Norwalk School District announced the return of Words in Transit, a public-art and literacy partnership that will place middle school students’ poetry on city buses to showcase young writers and beautify transit vehicles.

Matt Pence, chief executive officer of the Norwalk Transit District, introduced the program, saying, "This is called Words in Transit. This is the 2nd year that we're doing it." He described the project as a collaboration with local schools to highlight students’ creativity and to "beautify the buses a little bit."

Natalie Elwanger, literacy coach at Nathan Hale Middle School, said the program began last year to celebrate creative writing across the district and to engage middle school students with the larger community. "We came up with this program last year to celebrate creative writing in the district, and to get all middle school students involved in something with the community," Elwanger said. She added that students often write about the city’s diversity and that it is "wonderful to see a 6th grader, an 8th grader, sharing a similar love for the community."

Organizers said the effort pairs district literacy goals with the transit agency’s public-art platform. The program is intended to give students a visible audience for their work while adding community-facing design to buses. Specific logistics, including how many buses will be wrapped, selection criteria for poems, timing, and distribution, were not specified in the remarks.

The program is now in its second year and will continue to involve middle school students across the district; organizers described the partnership as ongoing collaboration between the transit agency and local schools.