The Itinerant Poetry Library

Since May 2006, The Itinerant Poetry Librarian has been travelling the world with a library of ‘Lost & Forgotten’ poetry, installing the library & librarian and archiving the sounds, poems and poetry of the cities, peoples and countries she meets. Welcome to the project's blog . . . Our Itinerant Poetry Librarian lives wherever her library is - come join the cause!

FAQs: • Yes we carry our entire life and the library with us as we go • Yes, it is quite heavy • No, we're not mad. As Charles Simic said, 'But what if poets are not crazy?' That's the spirit boyo!

We exist to: remind people of the importance of free public libraries...subvert mainstream channels of distribution...remind people that access to knowledge should be free and not dependent upon economic wealth hierarchies... show people that poetry/art can provide answers to questions we ask of life...experiment in existing outside of 'the market' – thereby, instead, investing in social capital, social innovation and community.

We aim to make life taste better. Word.

Where have we been . . . ?

(2006) Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Paris, Barcelona, London, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Norwich, York, Antwerp, (2007-2008) San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Leipzig, (2009) Ulm, Chemnitz, Rotterdam, Huntingdon, Callander, (2010) Cork, St. Andrews . . . Where'd you like us to go? Can you help? Get in touch!

What We Are Up To Right Now . . .

Archive

Friday 23 June 2006

Just before we leave Dresden for Prague . . .

We’d like to say thanks to Mona, our couchsurfing host, for being such a rockin&rsquo bed provider. Actually, technically it really was a couch, and we really did surf it. We also installed the poetry library at Mona’s house tonight, and she joined along with her friend Susie. Here they are enjoying our library . . .





We also allowed ourselves ONE WHOLE DAY OFF today, well, actually, what with blogging and all, it was only half a day. Come to think of it, since we’re posting the pictures we took on our 1/2 day off here, and we did set up the library (albeit at midnight), maybe in fact it wasn’t a half day off at all . . . hmm. Maybe we need to rethink this ‘time off’ thing a little . . . seems like we’ve turned into a ‘tweaker’, of the blog and library variety I hasten to add, not the erm, less salubrious kind. ANYWAY. Here are some pictures of Dresden. In all the conversations we’ve been having about what the hell poetry exactly is recently, I think one definition might actually be Dresden itself. Thanks to Kurt Vonnegut and Philip Gross for convincing us to come here is all I can say. Here is our poetry of Dresden in pictures . . .






















No comments: