This week’s Thursdays@Newhall in Old Town Newhall on Main Street will celebrate all things automotive. Every first Thursday of the month, residents can enjoy an ArtSlam, with interactive art projects, exhibits and installations by local artists.

The Poetry CarThursday’s CarSlam, from 7 to 11 p.m. will feature an artist painting the front end of a Carmen Gia and a sharpie marker artist customizing a hood of a vehicle. There will also be displays of visual art and photographs inspired by cars.

Attendees will have the opportunity to add poems to the “poetry car,” a unique public literary project started by Southern California artist Just Kibbe.

Kibbe began by painting his car completely white. He brought it to the 2013 Pasadena Literary Festival, asking festival-goers to treat the car as a canvas and write poetry on the car with paint markers.

The car is now covered in poems, in as many as five languages, and Kibbe said there is still room. He hopes that the project will encourage more of the public to read poetry.

“Having been a poet for fifteen years now, it’s obvious to me that there a lot of people out there that, if they hear the word poetry, they want nothing to do with it,” Kibbe said.

He believes that if you can present poetry through a different medium than the textbook or classroom, it becomes more appealing.

The car has allowed Kibbe to communicate with people in new ways.

He said that he will come out of the grocery store and find several people reading his car in the parking lot, and that he can answer their questions about the poetry because, “I met all the poets who are writing on my car.”

There are no specific requirements regarding length or subject matter for adding to the poetry car.

Kibbe said that he already has everything from a three-year-old’s poem to works with more adult content.

What happens once the car is completely covered? Kibbe will come up with a new public art idea.

“I anticipate my car continuing to be a public art project of some kind, as long as it can still drive,” he said.