At The Northern Charter, Newcastle
27th January 2018
Walking Library for Walking Women – with Dee Heddon
The Walking Library is an ongoing art project that seeks to bring together walking and books – walking, reading, reflecting, writing…
Each Walking Library responds to – is specific to – the context of its walking. Each walk changes the shape – the content and the actions – of the library.
Using The Walking Library as a catalyst for The Women Artists of the North East Library, we will be taking a selection of books on a walk around Newcastle. You may choose a book from either library or bring one of your own to donate after the walk.
The Walking Library follows in the footsteps of a long history.
In 1802, Coleridge walked through Cumberland, carrying with him ‘a shirt, a cravat, two pairs of stockings, tea, sugar, pens and paper, his night-cap, and a book of German poetry wrapped in green oilskin.’ He apparently read the Book of Revelations in Buttermere. In 1818, Keats travelled the Lake District and up to Scotland with his friend Charles Brown. Keats’ carried Dante’s Divine Comedy, Brown the works of Milton. In 1867, on a thousand mile walk to the gulf, John Muir carried a copy of Robert Burns’ poetry, Milton’s Paradise Lost, William Wood’s Botany, and a small New Testament.
The Walking Library for Women Walking is the 9th edition we’ve made. Each edition responds to a variation on the question ‘What book would you take for a walk?’ The more than 100 books in The Walking Library for Women Walking were all donated in response to the question: “What book would you give to accompany a woman walking?”
We invite you to join us as we walk these libraries in Newcastle, following in the footsteps of women who have walked this way before us, and reading and rewriting the streets as we go.
In 2018 the 130 items that were donated to the Walking Library for Women Walking were given to Glasgow Women’s Library to ensure free access to the collection.
More about The Walking Library project from Misha Myers and Dee Heddon at https://walkinglibraryproject.wordpress.com/
