EuropeConVerses

Antwerp Joins Library. Librarian Joins Dots.

2006-11-22T15:28:00.000Z

Wednesday November 15, 2006 11.32 AM

So. Our intrepid Itinerant One is called over to assist in the NACHT VAN DE POWEZIE in Antwerp. This consists of taking part in the all night poetry reading as well as walking around signing up members to the library with our little brown suitcase. It all took place at TNIEF BADHUIS, BURCHTGRACHT 14, which for those with inadequate belgianflemishdutchtypelanguage skills means The Bathhouse, 14 Burchtgracht, Antwerp. Which really was a former bath house, currently an awe-inspiring four storey squat. The Librarian arrived in the daylight, and so was able to help decorate the place. Which was a slightly sisphyian task at some points. Especially when helping cook Tomas try and staple gun gold brocade to the ceiling while balancing on a step ladder and the staple gun keeps breaking open and thus losing its staples every second shot. Everything finally got hung in place though and it looked beautiful. Several hours, a bowl of north african soup cooked by Tomas, a finished copy of Nicholson Baker’s ‘Double-Fold&rsquo, and a free beer later, two hundred people came to the squat to see all these poets and experimental musicians perform: H.J. Claeys, Hans Plomp, DJ Bert Lezy's experimental drawing space, Aixia, De Antistresspoweet, Chi-Trung Nguyen, Oam Boca Sista, Yasuhiro Yotsumoto, Barry Fitton, Mario Salis, Louise Landes Levi, Claude Lammens, Sara Wingate Gray, Peter Waugh, Irene, Ernest Marechal, Marleen van Joolen, Max Lerou, Pom Wolff, Freek Lomme, Xavier Roelens, Verde Ben-Kiki, Pieter Hemeryck, Richard Steegmans, Luk Paard, Cralan Kelder, Gijs Ter Haar, Manu Bruynserade, Stoffel Hendrickx, Els Dams, Stijn Vranken, Marc Tiefenthal, Artiestencollectief JA!, Sacha De Backer, Kaatje Wharton, Wosky, Waxinelichtje + Mariette, Bart Van Peer, Didi de Paris, Sven De Swerts, Frans Vlinderman, JMH Berckmans en Kris Verdonck, Bart Van Peel, Philip Van Beek, Peter Holvoet Hanssen, David Van den Bosch, de Transformateurkens, Daan Goor, Hilde Droogné, , Gunther De Wit, Sandra Verheij, Tania Jooris, De Jazzpoëtici, Pisteffo en Fronk, Bart De Wildeman, Herman van Lunen, Maarten Redstar, Joran Van Windt, Wil Fraikin, Het Venijnig Gebroed, Danny Danker, David Boulée, Nico Rubens, Mario Janssens, Emile Wouters, Enak Kortebeek. It was amazing. We will be getting pictures sent over soon, and will post them up. Highlights included the Artiestencollectief performing their brand of improvised sound and vocal compositions while projecting live images onto a screen on the back wall - this was also in the still-tiled and mosaiced former bath area with fittings still intact - (and we had a nice chat with Maarten from this group too), Peter Waugh’s sound poetry, the Pyromancer Poet we saw back in June in Ruigoord, this time dressed head to toe in English Gentleman tweed rather than covered in fire . . . and much more until the small twee wee hours. The Librarian made it to bed at 4am. We are not sure when the event actually stopped itself . . .

Important Library Note

New Antwerp Library member Xavier Roelens. You borrowed ‘The Heart of the Ancient Balcony&rsquo by Glynn Pursglove and DID NOT RETURN SAID ITEM. This is in breach of too many of our ByeByeLaws to list here without scaring you (e.g. for reference see the one about when you are liable to pay off our librarian’s student loan). Please get in touch to return our book. Best wishes. The Itinerant Poetry Librarian.

Where we performed: The Bathhouse

The front of this space. If only all houses looked similar . . .

‘Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, the Cathedral of Our Lady’ in Antwerp

Statue of Brabo

According to folklore, the city got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon that lived near the river Scheldt, exacting a toll from those crossing the river. On refusal, the giant severed one of their hands and threw them into the Scheldt. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero named Brabo, who cut off the giant's hand and threw it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen from Dutch hand werpen (hand-throwing). This is what my Belgian friends told me anyway. And Wikipedia says it too so it must be true. Hah.

Someone having a treasure hunt in Antwerp? We found these signs on the street. ‘Which Belgian city has a tram stop called Moscow’?

Het Steen - The Stone, Antwerp’s oldest building, built in 1200 - 1225, and previously known as Antwerp Castle

The Ship Musuem next to Antwerp Castle

The sky as we left Antwerp

What we like about Squats in Belgium: cool poster art

What we think of this particular squat

A Belgian film in directorial process at our departure lounge. What is going on?

Our Librarian gets to Trafalgar Square demos too . . .

& has friends who lose things after Halloween escapades . . .

We also did a reading at the Hopsack cafe while in Antwerp and got to hear poetry in Japanese, Dutch, English, French and probably Flemish. We’d like to say thanks to poets Louise Landes Levi and Yasuhiro Yotsumoto for donating copies of their poetry books to the library too. And finally we send librarian thanks to Frans and Nip who offered couch surfing Antwerp facilities and didn’t freak out too much when our librarian started to cough up some spots and dots of blood. Luckily, the Librarian has since been to the Doctor and does not have TB. Just a cough. We were a little worried seeing as one of our favourite poets is Keats and as ole Tennessee wrote ‘As a poet, I have a weakness for symbols’ . . . Doei!

Fully signed up Antwerp Library Members! Hurray!

Total Library Members as of today! As poet Salena Saliva Godden might say . . . She-Booooooooooom or as poet Barry Fitton might say . . . Hallelujah! Either way . . . We say, FUck yeAH!

Antwerp Audio

2006-11-22T15:11:00.000Z

Wednesday November 22, 2006 14.59 PM

A poem called Family Room, written and read in the original Japanese by Yasuhiro Yotsumoto, with a Dutch translation read by Erwin the Antistresspoet. Performed and recorded live at the Hopsack cafe, Antwerp, Belgium on November 12 2006

A sound poem performed by Peter Waugh, of Labyrinth poetry group (Vienna). Recorded live at the Hopsack cafe, Antwerp, Belgium on November 12 2006

A poem performed by Philip Meersman, of the sound and wordscapes experimental group Artiesten Collectif JA! (Belgium). Recorded live at the Hopsack cafe, Antwerp, Belgium on November 12 2006

YLAF storms into second place . . .

2006-10-31T17:55:00.000Z

Since being billed as the 'uber strict' itinerant poetry librarian, we thought it best to rise, or perhaps, more likely, fall to the challenge . . . thus not only did the Festival find us banning one new member for an offensive hairstyle, we also refused membership to 2 likely souls on the grounds of not enough immediate enthusiasm, were rude to a new member who wanted to swap her free haiku for another one, and generally itinerant-ed around the racecourse convention centre with portable poetry trolley looking mean, stern and, well, strict. It worked. Especially when wearing a 'CLOSED' sign on your person and are smoking a fag outside. This means that people do not even dare talk to you, let alone anything else. Hurray.

How to Install a Poetry Library in someone's house in Dresden

2006-06-22T11:52:00.000Z

Photographs of Dresden Street Art

2006-06-20T21:39:00.000Z

Ruigoord Review

2006-06-15T12:57:00.000Z

Poetry festival at Ruigoord, Amsterdam, June 3-5th, 2006

On my last night at RUigoord (Sunday, June 4th), we had wandered back to the relative luxury of our borrwed house and bed (actually the ‘Director&rsquo,s’) at around midnight, eschewing the continuing celebrations that seemed to emanate from every part of this island of grass. And it is almost an outcropped island too - I wandered round the perimeter early Sunday morning and came across a mosaic white statue, of a woman crowned and triumphant, as if she’d just been rescued from a ship’s prow and was now saluting her rag tag crew of rescuers by guarding the entrance to RUigoord from the sea.

We Install Ourselves at the British Council

2006-06-12T21:25:00.000Z

Ich Bin en Berlin

2006-06-07T09:59:00.000Z

Well we made it to Berlin . . . and will be spending the next few days inside editing the Ruigoord audio ready for our first podcast. Then we are allowed outside to explore. We do officially have our first library member though! Niko Topp who is providing accomodation also . . . thanks Niko. More coming soon. Especially the bit about unexpected massages in places you didn't want to be massaged - a full commentary on our Dutch Ruigoord exploits will be written soon!

2006-06-05T16:58:00.000Z

Wow! This is a VERY quick post to just exclaim our TOTAL and UTTER amazement at the beautiful landscape and atmosphere of Ruigoord. It’s a small artist colony, a half hour bus journey outside of Amsterdam, which was squatted in the 1970s and reclaimed. It was originally an island, then had huge amounts of sand dumped around it to turn it into the industrial wasteland that it has been rescued from (and just about remains rescued from) today. There is a huge Starbucks factory, plus oil containers and chemical plants that surround it…while the ‘village’ itself, or rather, community, exists in this state of artistry: by that I mean…well, there’s a 19th Century church with vast stained glass windows that is the fulcrum of the camp and performances: it’s also the bar and contains three original confessional boxes which have been turned into lavatories. Once again the Dutch excel themselves! People live in houses surrounding the church, on a few acres of grassland that has been cultivated and maintained. There are chickens wandering around. People riding horses. People riding motorbikes. A circus tent. There was a guy reading from a towering wooden pulpit, holding a flaming torch, who proceeded to perform a poetry set in-between fire-breathing, setting himself on fire and commanding the audience. That was just one of the shows I caught last night. I also managed to interview Erwin - the AntiStress Poet from Antwerp, as well as a Dutch poet, and record some electronic Balkan folk, plus some really loud frogs – “hot frogs” the Dutch poet reckoned! I’ll be editing this audio and posting up our first podcast in the next few days, before dipping my toes into the Berlin poetry scene. But basically, after Ruigoord, I think the rest of Europe might have rather a lot of catching up to do! There’s only one word to describe the Poetry Festival at Ruigoord . . . awesome!

Poëzie en muziekfestival “Vurige Tongen”

2006-06-03T09:29:00.000Z

So we've arrived in Amsterdam, and are about to head off to Vurige Tongen in Ruigoord ready for the poetry performances tomorrow evening. You can tune into Radio Ruigoord and hear everything broadcast by going to the Ruigoord site. You need to type into their search box the word 'radio' and then click on the link in the list of links which says
"Radio Ruigoord (/radio.html)". We've already started our poet interviews, and bagged Georgia Scott (a US poet based in Poland). She's the author of the collections The Good Wife (published by Poetry Salzburg 2001: 2nd ed.2002) and The Penny Bride (Poetry Salzburg 2004) and we'll be gathering interviews with the poets at the festival, ready to upload our first poetry podcast next week! Hurray!

The Look

2006-06-02T01:29:00.000Z

It is also very important, obviously, that we ensure that the Good Name of Librarians is Carried Onward and Upward. So. We have been practising our 'Librarian Look'. La Voila . . .

Activate The Poet

2006-06-01T01:03:00.000Z

We've also figured out how to perform our PerformancePoetryArt installation, 'Activate The Poet' while touring round.

Wireless doorbells: aren't they great! Press Button to Activate Poet! This is one of the installations we performed at the Norwich Fringe Festival 2004, alongside our 'Head in a Box' installation. You can also see a video of me 'being activated' on the BBC's Video Nation site.

Don't You Just Love Norfolk

2006-05-29T12:59:00.000Z

Incidentally...before we blow this joint, we thought we'd take the time to show you the wonderful sights of this fine city (and county). First up, spotted in Fakenham's cemetery:

Meanwhile, the young people of Fakenham similarly enjoy getting their own back . . .

Obviously we have to get rid of all our belongings before we can fully poetically engage...

2006-05-19T00:38:00.000Z

Good Riddance to Belongings

We have . . .

Books. . . A lefthanded electric guitar. . . Wednesday's moustache (previously worn). . . A well-loved steamer. . . What every poet should drink their tea from. . .
Belongings eh? They just kinda creep up on you and next thing you know you've gone a small child's blackboard, eight gin shot glasses, and a half full bottle of green chartruese too far. But hey. There's an easy way out: get rid of them. I was going to give every item a 'chronicle' but me and a friend started cataloguing and after 4 hours we were as far on as...ooh...item number 37. Which incidentally was a polyester, herringbone weave, red shirt popular with merchant bankers in the 1970s. We gave up. Since this week I've had people coming round and realising they've always needed a lemon slice squeezer...my stuff is depleting. Slowly.

The Poetry Tour Shapes Up...

2006-05-17T15:35:00.000Z

Thank you to Swede for designing!

Pre-tour poetry starter

2006-04-23T10:21:00.000Z

So, we thought we'd wander over to Amsterdam for a pre-tour mini performance...and here we are. We came to celebrate a poet's birthday, and take part in a night of wonderful performances at Cafe Bax. The Dutch are really serious when it comes down to providing entertainment. These guys actually built a stage from scratch on the spot, hung it with curtains, and brought in a full PA system, so what with resident piano and chandeliers the joint was very fancy indeed. And an amazing array of artists: mime, comedy, theatre, cabaret, Dutch poets, English poets, guitarists and singer-songwriters: all took to the stage to perform their work. What an amazing night. I can't wait to come back properly and spend some time with these guys and their artforms. Hurray for Holland!

Welcome We Are Still In England

2006-04-11T21:21:00.000Z

In anticipation of pending Poetry Podcast and Blogging Tour of Europe...we welcome YOU the Poets of Europe to get in touch and kick off our Exquisite Corpsical of a poetic dialogue. We have The Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Spain in our sights so far: please get in touch to let us know where you are in Europe so we can come and interview you and record your poems. We intend to wander far and wide, clouds & daffodils not necessary, but potentially quite nice.