2 pm, Portland, United States - BOOKSELLERS, LIBRARIANS AND TEACHERS SAY NO TO ILLITERACY IN SOUTH SUDAN

Further on from Europe to America - the great chain of ILAB Pop Up Fairs has now reached the fifth of five continents where the ILAB booksellers have been popping up on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day 2016. What started nearly 20 hours ago this morning in Perth, Dunkeld and Sydney, Australia, has become a worldwide celebration of books, reading and literacy.

And here we go! The Portland ILAB Pop Up Book Fair is about to begin. Come on out to the West Linn Library to see some amazing books & ephemera, bring your books for appraisal and help the Portland booksellers -  Elisabeth Burdon, Nat des Marais, Charles Seluzicki - raise funds for the UNESCO literacy projects. Help UNESCO's Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative bring literacy to South Sudan!

 

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the organizers

PORTLAND AND SEATTLE BOOKSELLERS, LIBRARIANS AND TEACHERS SAY NO TO ILLITERACY IN SOUTH SUDAN

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ON 23 APRIL? 

Portland Oregon: Motivated by the strong desire to see the shocking figures of illiteracy in South Sudan dramatically reduced ILAB booksellers Elisabeth Burdon, Nat des Marais and Charles Seluzicki of Portland, Oregon have got together with Library Director Doug Erickson of West Linn Community Library in an effort to make books and reading commonplace in South Sudan. Being “book people” they will do this via book related activities at the West Linn Community Library next weekend on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April 2016. 

As a community library ideally the event needed to be something that would involve the community, if possible add value to the cultural life of the community as well as placing the library and its community firmly in the wider world.  How to combine all of these things?  Have a day of showing great books, giving free appraisals and most importantly of all inviting the West Linn and wider Portland area public to join the booksellers and librarians and fill empty bookcase poster to raise money for UNESCO supported literacy programmes in South Sudan!  Actually there is so much enthusiasm for the project that rumour has it that teacher-librarian Stacy Erickson has also joined in and is working with students to fill an Empty Bookcase at the nearby West Linn High School where she teaches. West Linn is quite a community! So don’t miss it if you are in Portland Oregon this Saturday visit West Linn Community Library between 12 noon and 5pm.

Seattle Washington: A few hours drive north in Seattle Washington another group of ILAB booksellers will host the final event of ILAB’s 24 hours of celebrations of the rare book and its place in our world. Seattle bookseller Ed Smith and his colleagues will welcome you in the Madison Room at the Sorrento Hotel for an ILAB Pop Up Fair including a 6-hour appraisal event, lots of information about the antiquarian booksellers in the United States and their national association (ABAA) and, as all ILAB booksellers worldwide on that day, with a big fundraising for the UNESCO project to help the children in South Sudan.

These two events will be the end of the extraordinary 24 hours that UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day on Saturday April 23 is sure to be.

FOLLOW US LIVE ... ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ... ACROSS THE WORLD ... ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY ... 23 APRIL 2016!

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the organizers

11.30 to 4 pm, Portland, Oregon - Bridge City, Beer City, BOOK City: a brew pub hosts one of the final ILAB Pop Up Fair on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day 2015!

24 hours of ILAB Pop Up Fairs across the world on April 23, 2015 – this is ILAB’s contribution to the UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day! As the earth turns, book fairs "pop up" in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. The day started with an ILAB Pop Up Fair celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday at the State Library of New South Wales followed up by antiquarian booksellers showing amazing books, prints and manuscripts in the most unusual and unexpected locations: in woolsheds, restaurants, museums, libraries, a synagogue, in the streets of New York, in Groningen’s Folkingestraat or on a boat cruising the canals in Amsterdam.

Here in Portland, Oregon local ILAB dealers Elisabeth Burdon, Nat Des Marais, and Charles Seluzicki present a display and sale of antiquarian books and ephemera to highlight the cultural heritage of the book. Recognizing the important place that books hold in the dissemination of knowledge, they continue the work of their colleagues around the world to fill a "virtual bookcase" as participants and visitors donate money to buy books for schools in South Sudan.

To make the event authentically “Portland," - the home of "more breweries (and bookshops) than any other city on earth," - they are gathering at a brew pub, the Lucky Lab on Hawthorne Boulevard, a short walk over the Hawthorne Bridge from downtown Portland.  Whether you think of this beautiful city on the Willamette River as Book City, Bridge City or Beer City, Portlanders are mixing fun with the serious purpose of the international community of booksellers of promoting literacy around the world.

Thanks to Jessica Doyle from AbeBooks for representing them and their generous donation.