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at the 45th poetry international festival
The Itinerant Poetry Librarian strikes again
27 juni 2014
During the festival the 300th VPL was awarded with a certificate (see the image on the left). Rotterdam is now officially Number 2 in the Top-of-the-Library membership chart, with 312 Valued Patrons, second only to San Francisco (on 388 VPLs), giving the Itinerant Poetry Library a worldwide total VPL membership of 1832 VPLs.
We're looking forward to breaking that record at next year's festival!
Since 2006, Sara Wingate-Gray, a.k.a. the Itinerant Poetry Librarian, has been roaming the world with a suitcase in which she carries her eclectic library of materials of a ‘lost & forgotten poetry-like nature’.
The Itinerant Poetry Library has no vehicle, no building, next to no budget. Instead, Sara Wingate-Gray relies 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 – worldwide.
In 2009 the Itinerant Poetry Library made its first visit to the Poetry International Festival. It returned in 2011, 2012, and 2013, and was there once again in 2014, with a new selection of books for members to borrow. This year she signed up 49 of you as new Valued Patrons of the Library (VPLs), and had 19 returning Valued Patrons come and interact with the library and librarian, as well as many more of you who came and talked, thought and did library, poetry and life-related engaging.
During the festival the 300th VPL was awarded with a certificate (see the image on the left). Rotterdam is now officially Number 2 in the Top-of-the-Library membership chart, with 312 Valued Patrons, second only to San Francisco (on 388 VPLs), giving the Itinerant Poetry Library a worldwide total VPL membership of 1832 VPLs.
We're looking forward to breaking that record at next year's festival!
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