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

Showing posts with label British Council. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British Council. Show all posts

Thursday, 15 June 2006

Aaah. The delightful sound of Swedish football fans on the night bus home in Berlin.

Well, another day at the British Council. Three whole new members to add to The Poetry Cubicle Library. A veritable feast of a meeting with poet Maroula Blades who is also going to show us the sights (poetic and otherwise - thanks Maroula!) and then the night bus home to Amrumer Str. With a bus load of Swedish fans. Who were awfully excited, despite the fact that their team aren’t playing for another 12 hours or so. Testosterone eh? As always, our trusty librarian had her digital voice recorder on her, so she could catch their dulcet tones. Take it away boys . . .


Swedish fans. Rather vocal huh?

Wednesday, 14 June 2006

More British Council Antics . . . and finally the World Cup gets us in Berlin

So, our second day of installation . . . and apart from noticing the same man from yesterday (baseball cap, spends a lot of time watching what appear to be internet videos on a computer screen across the other side of the room from me . . .) we also had the excitement of welcoming five new members to the poetry library. One surprised German. One dubious German. One excited German. One co-erced German. And an Australian who kept telling me how much she wasn't really interested in poetry. I made her join anyway. And she gave me a poetry tip so I don't quite believe her lack of poetry interest. Or it just goes to prove that there's a little bit of poetry in everyone. We also took some more pictures at the British Council . . .



Getting ready to be an officious librarian



We find our uncle's book in the BC Library....shock horror. Hope he doesn't read this blog and get a big head.



Our poetry washing line



We also went to a screening of the Brazil vs. Croatia match, after librarian-ing it for the day, seeing as we’re in Berlin and can’t get away from the football. The Germans are totally down with it though. There’s this huge big screen set up in my host’s local park, where everyone has been congregating to watch matches. There are benches set out for everyone, a tent with smaller screens in case it is too hot (or unlikely, cold / wet), beer stalls and a beach volleyball and football pitch for people who are rather more active. Tonight there was also a dude sitting in a beach chair smoking a sheesh pipe with his mate, and rooting for Croatia. We thought you might like to hear what a crowd of locals sound like watching the match: it’s a compilation of crowd ‘oohs’ & ‘aahs’.



And while I was going through the audio I came across this snippet from the commentator . . . heh heh.



Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’ve been smoking nightly on these stairs,





. . . avoiding areas that say these kind of things . . .





. . . and have decided the collective noun for spinach is a ‘sink’ of which I need to get my daily dose. Mmmmm. Spinach.



Monday, 12 June 2006

We install ourselves . . .

We are installed in the British Council Library RIGHT NOW with two tables displaying our poetry books, plus we have hung our washing line of poems up also. Come along and join the library and we will stamp your library card to validate it and give you a copy of our Bye Bye Laws which you are bound by when you become a member of our library. We are here all week (12noon until 6pm, June 12th - June 16th) and we may even read a poem to you if you are nice. Plus don’t forget, you can TEXT the following number (text charged at your local network rate) and we will send you a FREE TEXT back telling you where our Poetry Librarian is installed RIGHT NOW so you can turn up, join the library and begin to borrow our poetry books and poems! Poetry Goes Technological! Huzzah! TEXT the word POETRY to +447797805300



We are installed





in a poetry library kinda way





. . . and we like it . . .





We must encourage Young People to witter





. . . or just take tea with us