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, 10 August 2006

Amsterdam arrival

So. Tuesday night we left Barcelona. Wednesday morning we woke up in Paris. Wednesday afternoon we arrived Amsterdam. And we are now about to go and catch a bus to Ruigoord (half hour from city centre) and try and find the Radio tent and a person called Silvia, so that A. we can get in to the Festival and B. we can sleep somewhere tonight. Tomorrow we are going to sign up some more Dutch library members - Barry and Anja had a private poetry library installation in their house last night, and signed up, so we are currently on two. Amsterdam has some catching up to do as we didn’t manage to set up the library when we were here the first time back at the beginning of June, so our librarian is ready to roll out the library stamps and get some wrist action in to up the ante in the membership stakes. At some point in the next 48 hours we aim to have installed the library amongst 4000 people at Landjuweel Festival, and also done a poetry and sound clips show on Radio Ruigoord. We just need to find the bus station right now, and perhaps some breakfast. Which will definitely not be cous cous. Or cheese sandwiches. We hope. You can click on the Radio link in the sidebar on the Ruigoord website to listen in to our show. And once again, we are writing from some internet cafe with the less than useful ability to log on to the internet, and not be allowed to upload a thing. So picture and audio updates will have to wait. Landjuweel Festival has no electricity whatsoever this year, so unless we find an internet tent with solar power (we wouldn’t be surprised with the Dutch though) we will post all this as soon as we find...anywhere! In the meantime folks, we have library members to seek out . . .

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