U of C to restore historic graffiti poem following painting error
Since the 1970s, students, faculty and visitors climbing the stairs of the University of Calgary’s Social Sciences tower were able to gaze into the life of Leon the Frog through a gripping poem depicted on 13 flights of stairs, with each step containing its own line.
But on Friday, Leon’s story vanished.
After nearly 50 years, the beloved poem was mistakenly painted over as part of a movement to remove graffiti around the University of Calgary campus.
It didn’t take long for Ian Kinney, University of Calgary alumnus, to step forward and decide Leon the Frog needed to be brought back home.
“This poem is part of what it means to go up the stairs here,” said Kinney. “It was part of the history of the social sciences building.”
With many of the stanzas from the poem being more than 200 words long, Kinney said he and his volunteers will do their best to transcribe the poem back onto the staircase word-for-word, based on various archives of the original copy.
Kinney said with the changes the social sciences building has undergone over the years, there will be decisions to be made regarding whether each stanza of the erased version should be replicated in the same spot again.
The essence of many of the stanzas in the poem were directly related to what department floor the step led to. But many of the departments are no longer on the same floors as when Leon the Frog was originally written, making certain lines of the poem less relevant in their original location.
“We’ll leave it up to our volunteers to decide whether or not they will maintain the original references, or if they will interpret and rewrite the poem to suit the context for today,” said Kinney.
Curtis Joynt, 1987 graduate of the political science program, was one of the many students to hike the staircase over the years and he said he was happy to hear Leon the Frog would be restored.
“These are the little details that make the University of Calgary special and unique,” said Joynt. “Little things like this give it a bit of character.”
Officials say the epic poem was accidentally painted over by contractors, who were hired to remove graffiti from around the campus.
“I was shocked when I heard it had been covered up,” said Joynt. “It seemed kind of bizarre.”
He said it may not be a college memory every graduate remembers or a feature they were intensely connected to, but when an instance like this occurs, the memories come flooding back.
“It wasn’t so much an attachment to the poem, but rather a reminder of the little details you see around you in life that you occasionally forget,” said Joynt. “You don’t remember these things decades after but, in cases like these, it floods back quickly.”
The restoration of Leon the Frog is scheduled to take place April 13, and anyone wishing to assist in the process can register online to volunteer.