Article
The Itinerant Poetry Library
June 09, 2009
The Itinerant Poetry Library has no vehicle, no building, next to no budget. Instead, the collection travels around in the suitcase of the librarian, Sara Wingate-Gray, who since 2006 has been continuously roaming the world, relying on couch-surfing, soup kitchens and the generosity of strangers for food, accommodation and transport. So far, she has installed the library in over 150 locations – from parks to bookshops to cafés to people’s homes – in 11 countries and 21 cities worldwide.
Why? According to the library itself, it exists 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 [and to] experiment in existing outside of ‘the market’ – thereby, instead, investing in social capital, social innovation and community”. And it succeeds in doing all of these things through a simple installation composed only of a table, a chair, a sign, one woman and some books.
While coming across the library by chance would be the ideal way to experience it – after all, part of its ethos hinges around unpredictability and transience – discovering where the library will be next is made easier by the internet: you can follow the library on Twitter or via the library blog.
And, if you are in Rotterdam between 13 and 19 June this year you will be able to visit the Itinerant Poetry Library during its very first visit to the Poetry International Festival. The librarian will be dividing her time between the Rotterdam Schouwburg and Café Floor, next door to the theatre. If you’re not yet a member of one of the world’s most extraordinary libraries, now’s your chance to become one. What’s more, the Itinerant Poetry Librarian will be contributing to this website via a diary detailing her festival experiences. Watch this space. Links
The Itinerant Poetry Library website
Article about The Itinerant Poetry Library on LAB
Article about The Itinerant Poetry Library in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
When I was a child staying on my grandparents’ farm in northern England I used to get very excited when the mobile library came to visit. We would climb up into this magical van and browse its confines for books which we were allowed to borrow for a few weeks, until the librarian returned again to pick them up and offer us new ones. The thrills were numerous: the arrival of the library van was always a surprise; there was something supremely giddy-making, Christmas-like, about having free books delivered to our door; and we never knew what books would be in the van the next time it came past.
I relived that excitement last year, albeit minus the van, when I visited the Itinerant Poetry Library during one of its installations in Amsterdam. Having agreed to the “bye-bye” laws of the library, and after a lot of careful scrutiny and vigorous ink-stamping by the stern, suit-clad librarian, I was handed my membership card and allowed to borrow books from its eclectic selection of materials of a “Lost and Forgotten poetry-like nature”.The Itinerant Poetry Library has no vehicle, no building, next to no budget. Instead, the collection travels around in the suitcase of the librarian, Sara Wingate-Gray, who since 2006 has been continuously roaming the world, relying on couch-surfing, soup kitchens and the generosity of strangers for food, accommodation and transport. So far, she has installed the library in over 150 locations – from parks to bookshops to cafés to people’s homes – in 11 countries and 21 cities worldwide.
Why? According to the library itself, it exists 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 [and to] experiment in existing outside of ‘the market’ – thereby, instead, investing in social capital, social innovation and community”. And it succeeds in doing all of these things through a simple installation composed only of a table, a chair, a sign, one woman and some books.
While coming across the library by chance would be the ideal way to experience it – after all, part of its ethos hinges around unpredictability and transience – discovering where the library will be next is made easier by the internet: you can follow the library on Twitter or via the library blog.
And, if you are in Rotterdam between 13 and 19 June this year you will be able to visit the Itinerant Poetry Library during its very first visit to the Poetry International Festival. The librarian will be dividing her time between the Rotterdam Schouwburg and Café Floor, next door to the theatre. If you’re not yet a member of one of the world’s most extraordinary libraries, now’s your chance to become one. What’s more, the Itinerant Poetry Librarian will be contributing to this website via a diary detailing her festival experiences. Watch this space. Links
The Itinerant Poetry Library website
Article about The Itinerant Poetry Library on LAB
Article about The Itinerant Poetry Library in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
© Sarah Ream
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