The Itinerant Poetry Librarian: Appreciate The Art . . .

Friday, 20 October 2006

Appreciate The Art . . .

So. Our last day of poetry library installation at Norwich Fringe Festival saw us stack up another five members, two of whom, it has to be said, required a full explanation of what exactly the terms ‘free’, ‘poetry’ and ‘library’ meant, alongside the actual physical demonstration of how to borrow books in the ‘present moment’ (our librarian mimed taking, reading and placing back on the trolley a poetic title), which we thought was a bit much considering we were actually installed at an Art Exhibition innit, and thus it might not be a thought too far to realise that something slightly up, out and away of the usual might be taking place on the factory floor. Nevermind. Our librarian persisted, and these two members, once convinced of the merits of library membership in fact borrowed three items between them for several hours, whilst milling around the factory checking out the art. What did they borrow . . . ? One of the current favourites, Ho Chi Minh’s ‘Prison Diary’ was on their list, alongside ‘Poetry 1972’ which was favoured for the Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin poems it contained. All in a day’s recommendation. Job done! Five members also means . . . that Norwich slides into joint first position in the library membership stakes, alongside previous reigning champs Budapest, both with 34 fully carded-up new library members, with Prague stealing up the rear with a qaurterbacktastic 28. Maaarvellous. Meanwhile, back at the Factory, we also enjoyed some ART . . .