ZIP codes didn’t even exist until 1963, when they were introduced to help improve mail delivery: “Zone Improvement Plan” = your mail zips right through the system! Since then they’ve become a form of shorthand, functioning as adjectives to describe the neighborhoods they serve. Everybody knows 90210, right? Our local NPR affiliate, WMFE, tapped into this ZIP code team spirit when they introduced “ZipOdes” a few years ago – a form of neighborhood-defining poetry in which each of five lines contains the number of words corresponding to your ZIP. (Orlando Weekly is based downtown (32801), so we might submit something like: “Barflies by night,/office workers/by day. Round the clock, homeless eyes watch/… /everything.”) Hear more – and better – hyperlocal versifying at Thursday night’s ZipOde Throwdown – a local contender for NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest will play, and organizers ask attendees to “Please bring a side dish or drink to share that represents your ZIP code. It can be homemade or from a local restaurant (include the business card and/or label your dish with the ZIP code).” Tastes like home!
7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26 | Timucua Arts House, 2000 S. Summerlin Ave. | zipodethrowdown.eventbrite.com | free
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This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2018.
