Urban Coyotes in Art, Poetry and Music
In honor of our recent coyote visitors in New York City, here are a few images and songs inspired by urban coyotes.
By Atty Gell.
Beautiful, no? This print was made by Atty Gell, an artist who lives near Trout Lake Park in East Vancouver, Canada. Coyotes are not infrequently spotted passing through the park and the neighborhood.
When I was working on my play, NYC Coyote Existential, I asked Atty to create some coyote images for me to use for publicity purposes. She sent these lovelies.
For poetry, listen to Tim Seibles read his poem: Midnight, the Coyote, Down at the Mouth.
For music, try this music video of Coyotes by Modest Mouse, inspired by an incident in 2002 when a coyote was spotted riding light rail in Portland, Oregon. Don’t know what well-trained coyote played the role, but here’s a photo of the actual wild coyote, looking no more harried than any other habitual commuter on a bad day.
The same Portland coyote inspired the Sleater-Kinney’s song, Light Rail Coyote:
And if you need to bang your head a bit (and as evidence that the urban coyote has been around and has legs, as it were), here is Coping with the Urban Coyote, Unida’s 1999 album. Love that cover art.
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Tags: coyote art, coyote poetry, coyote song, coyotes, light rail coyote
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April 28, 2017 at 5:32 am
Thats awesome. So we can actually expect a roadrunner in urban street…
February 3, 2015 at 2:13 pm
Love the art, she so suits your style! I sense a play coming on….again, perhaps!?!?!
January 31, 2015 at 7:07 am
Melissa – so great to have you back – you’ve inspired me to get back to writing as well… love these posts about NYC, coyotes, the storm that wasn’t and that photo of the little fellow trying out his boots in teh sow in the park? Fabulous…
January 30, 2015 at 10:02 pm
It is splendid to learn of a play devoted to a relationship between a human and a non-domesticated species! We need more of this kind of “humanity” which blurs the barrier between “us” and “them”. Any plans to produce it in Northern New England?
January 30, 2015 at 9:18 pm
Great post! I’m still wowed by your previous post on city cooyotes.
Would you like to guest post this on my blog as part of the Wild About series?