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 30 June 2006

Oops. That would be your bus going without you to Vienna then . . .

Ah-hem. Yeeees. We seem to have missed our next connection. Silent alarm clocks which do very little in the way of encouraging one to wake up and go go go eh? Nevermind. We are having a Jolly Good Time in Prague, and it DOES mean that we get to go to a poetry and music gig tonight in a bunker somewhere the hell in Prague. So, obviously, it was all planned for me without me knowing. Vienna on Sunday it is then folks. And if you miss us in Vienna you can catch up with us in Budapest. . . in the meantime, just in case you thought we had on board a slack librarian, here’s the proof of the pudding so to speak . . .





This is our library installed earlier this week at the wonderful Cafe Metropole in Praha, where we had our best day yet on the tour so far, signing up twelve whole members in just one day!





This is how we advertise locals-style, it says: ‘Free poetry library. Would you like to join?’ So now you know some handy Czech!







And inbetween setting up the library at Metropole and Shakespeare & Sons, we came across this damn fine vehicle.





We also do rather classy advertising too . . .

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