Press Release – Poetry Cab from NY to LA stops during the National Poetry Month at Everything Goes Book Cafe
Like last year, Dutch artist and founder of Los Angeles Poetry Beach Festival Erik van Loon from Rotterdam, the Netherlands will visit this April during National Poetry Month 250 bookstores, 60 libraries and 64 trainstations between NY and LA to promote his five days Coast to Coast poetry festivaland its proceeding events: The Poetry Train and L.A.P.D! He will do that with the Poetry Cab!
Free rides for poets
New this year is the Poetry Cab. Erik van Loon doesn’t want to drive al 3,400 miles alone like last year that’s why he offer poets in the 64 cities/towns a free ride in his Poetry Cab. This is a NYC yellow cab that he bought and turned into a Poetry Cab has a professional filmstudio. To win a ride in the poetry cab poets from New York have to write him a poem about their city. In each city he will select one poem / poet for the Poetry Cab 2023 anthology and each poet have to read their selected poem during the free ride from New York to next stop Newark. All poetry reading video’s will be shown at the LA Times Festival of Books (LATFOB). Audience at LATFOB can watch the video’s on the back seat of his Poetry Cab. At www.poetrycab.com people can find more information about the Poetry Cab and how late we exactly will pick up a poet at Everything Goes Book Cafe at 208 Bay Street, Staten Island.
Five Days Poetry Festival
DAY 1-3 2nd Poetry Train
September 20-22
At Wednesday September 20 at 6.45 am (sunrise) the Poetry Train will depart from Penn Station, New York and in just 76 hours (3 days) this train arrive at Union Station, Los Angeles at Saturday, September 23 at 8.00 am. The Poety Train picks up poets in the two biggest cities of US and 62 other big urban cities and small rural towns in 20 different states.
DAY 4 L.A.P.D.
September 23
At Saturday September 23 just a few hours after the Poetry Train arrives a L.A.P.D. the fourth day of the festival will be kicked of with the daily ‘We Need More Poetry’ talkshow. L.A.P.D. is an acronym of Los Angeles Poetry Downtown and at this festival local (LA) poets will read together with poets from the Poetry Train and selected poets form LA Poetry Beach their work in various bookstores, libraries, cafes, etc in greater Los Angeles. After a LA Streetfood Dinner poets can watch two Sylvia Plath movies in a local cinema. With the tiny L.A.P.D. poetry readings we want to introduce poetry from all over US to all kinds of people in Los Angeles and to get them ready for the main and final event: L.A. Poetry Beach.
Day 5 3rd L.A. Poetry Beach
September 24
On Sunday September 24 from 10.00 am till 6.45 pm (sunset) the 3rd edition of L.A. Poetry Beach Festival will be hold in front of the Venice Beach Poet’s Monument in Los Angeles! The final day will start with a
commemoration of death poets at 11.11 am and after that there will be book presentations, readings with the 12 best poets of L.A. Poetry Beach 2023, and the five days poetry festival will end with a beachparty till sunset.
Theme: I Never Could Talk To You
Deadline: September 1
Theme of LA Poetry Beach this year is Sylvia Plath’s ‘I Never Could Talk To You’ and poets from all over the world can submit a poem for the competition. The deadline is September 1 and the entry fee is $10.
Fight illiteracy
Bringing poets from of all over America and abroad, level and ages once a year together, and bringing them into contact with the audience helps communities to fight illiteracy. He choosed poetry above prose as a few words poetry, an Haiku for example, can already improve the skills Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Poetry helps also to improves vocabulary, sentence formation, syntax, fluency and creativity.
Two anthology
We publish this year two different anthologies. One L.A. Poetry Beach Festival anthology with max 52 selected poets (deadline September 1st) and one Poetry Train zin (magazine) with work from the poets on the Poetry Train. The Poetry Train anthology will be published, briefly after the journey. For this anthology we will select only one typed (they have to use an old vintage typewriter on the Poetry Train) poem of each poet on the Poetry Train.
Additional information:
Three Times Charmed
In 2021 and 2022 the poets will travel by AmTrak. Hopefully, this year at least 64 poets (one poet at each stop) will hop on the Poetry Train to Los Angeles. 64 is too small to lease a whole train, but it’s enough to rent two extra cars. In 2025, Erik van Loon, want to find enough sponsors and poets to lease his own train with in addition to the coach, a restaurant and sleeper car, a disco, a bar and a library car where poets can meet each other.
Crowdfunding
To finance this five days Poetry Festival Erik van Loon recently recently started a crowdfunding. Go to https://www.lapoetrybeach.com/crowdfunding for more info.
Erik van Loon
More information about Erik van Loon you can find in About Us www.lapoetrybeach.com/about-us.
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More info:
Los Angeles Poetry Beach Festival
Erik Van Loon
www.lapoetrybeach.com
lapoetrybeach@gmail.com
EU +31 6 E VAN LOON (+31 6 3 826 5666)
US +1 424 443 9707
Facebook/Instagram/Twitter: @lapoetrybeach
