Magnetic Garage Door Makes Poets of Us All

Earlier this summer, Pam Tellew, organizer of Albany's clothing swap, backyard chicken raiser and fruit tree sharer, decided to turn a plain garage door into a blank canvas to showcase local creativity. Pondering the door one day, and considering sprucing it up with stencils, she suddenly realized there was magic in the material: "Is it metal? I wondered. It's metal!" One night in June, she and one of her children stuck dozens of magnetic words on the garage; by morning there were five poems up. "We felt like we were doing a guerrilla project; we didn't tell my husband," she said. "It looked so awful and boring before. I just like making things look better." Swing by, check it out and make your own contribution to the project. Learn more about the garage on Tellew's blog. Find out more about community efforts in Albany on the city's website.