Meet Meredith Garrett: The River City Street Poet
Meredith has become locally renown as Chattanooga's one and only street poet, bringing the gift of poetry to the streets of the scenic city
Chattanooga has no shortage of interesting characters walking its streets and one that may have caught your attention is a poet with a 1940’s typewriter sitting on the Walnut Street Bridge. There she will speak with those who walk by and write poems for them, right there on the spot. This is Meredith Garrett, more widely known as the river city street poet. She is a one of a kind local artist, who has brought her gift of poetry literally out onto the streets of the city!
When she isn’t busy typing away at local hot spots, Meredith writes professionally and has experience in technical writing and copywriting. She has always seen writing as a vocation and pursued it in various ways throughout her life, whether through majoring in English while in college or publishing her own book.
While on vacation with her wife in New Orleans, Meredith discovered street poetry. She immediately fell in love with the poet she saw and the courage it took for them to create poetry right there on the spot for people they encountered. Meredith knew that she had to bring this art to Chattanooga and that the city would be receptive to it. At first, she found it to be quite intimidating. Meredith is an introvert and the idea of striking up a conversation with strangers was not easy for her. She found people to be extremely receptive and began to develop a special dialogue between the people she worked with.
“The type of dialogue we have is so special,” Meredith said. “It’s not small talk, but real talk about their lives and what they’re feeling. It’s amazing what strangers feel comfortable telling a poet on the street.”
When asked about any personal goals for her writing career, Meredith said that she feels that she has reached the point in her life where she feels comfortable and confident enough to call herself a writer. She feels that with all of the experience she now has, she has rightfully earned the title of writer and now wants to focus on expanding her knowledge on all kinds of writing.
Meredith is having a huge impact on the community through her work by showing people to not be afraid to express themselves and be open about their talents.
“I hope to encourage people to be bold with whatever talent they are given, especially if it’s artistic.” You can follow Meredith on Instagram with the handle below and visit her website with the link provided to learn more about her writing.