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

Thursday 17 August 2006

The Poetry Society Cafe in London . . .

. . . is a little empty. Or at least, it was when our librarian turned up for her first shift of the day there, yesterday (Wednesday 16th August) from 2pm - 8pm. Very few merry poetic souls even dared drift through the door to sample the cafe’s delightful cakes and drinks, let alone take the opportunity to peruse a poetry library (and a travelling one at that). Oh well. I guess the fact that it is a Poetry cafe does indicate that, much as the rest of the genre, it’s of interest to a minority audience (otherwise known sometimes as a mug’s game). Things heated up however a little later in the day, and we did manage to bag two whole new London members, so it wasn’t all emptiness and ennui. Taking the advice of the cafe staff however, we are going to do 4pm - 8pm shifts, as they reckoned that more people came later in the day. This is why it is now past 2pm and we are not there yet but instead posting on our blog. We have changed our times. So, from 4pm til 7pm TODAY (Thursday - we have an evening engagement that infringes and shaves off our last hour unfortunately) and then 4pm until 8pm on Friday you can catch up and sign up. We will also post pictures and get some of that damn audio editing going on, now that we are located in the same environment for at least 4 days (yippee! No lugging the entire library for at least 48 hours to foreign places!). And it is looking likely that the next library installation will be in Norwich in the near future. Stay tuned for further full details! In the meantime, total library membership now stands at 141, with members in Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest (winning with 34 members in total), Paris, Barcelona and London. And we are open to offers of other visits - so if you desperately need a travelling poetry library in yjavascript:void(0)our shed, school, taxi or town, get in touch today!

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