F
or the past two years the
literary nonprofit House of
SpeakEasy has been bringing
books to neighborhoods in and
around New York City in the back of
its bookmobile, a festive maroon box
truck outfitted with bookshelves and
movable side panels that serves as a
pop-up bookstore and donation center
wherever it’s parked. This June, in col-
laboration with storytelling organiza-
tion Narrative 4, the bookmobile will
undertake its longest journey yet, trav-
eling fifteen hundred miles from New
York City to New Orleans and making
stops in seven states along the way.
During this expedition, called the
Poetry to the People Tour, represen-
tatives from House of SpeakEasy and
Narrative 4 will host events and donate
books to local libraries, schools, and
prisons. The truck will then roll into
New Orleans on the first day of Narra-
tive 4’s annual Global Summit, a five-
day event for teens and young adults to
share stories and build leadership skills.
“I knew that we were heading to New
Orleans for the summit, so I had a wild
idea to drive there and give out books
in underserved spaces along the way,”
says Rob Spillman, who works with
Narrative 4 and is more widely known
as the editor and cofounder of Tin
House, which published its final issue in
June. “The House of SpeakEasy team
and the Narrative 4 team both loved
the idea, so we joined forces.” Spillman
also contacted DonorsChoose.org, aJULY AUGUST 2019 12NEWS ANDthousand books to prisons, libraries
such as the Floyd County Public Li-
brary in Kentucky, and schools such as
Plum High School in Pittsburgh.
While the donated books encompass
a range of genres from self-help to lit-
erary fiction, according to the needs of
each institution, events on the tour will
emphasize poetry, which Spillman and
Waxman agree is a particularly galva-
nizing outlet for young people today.
“Right now poetry feels incredibly
urgent,” Spillman says. “It is able to
address the current, horribly unsettled
moment better than most prose. Thenonprofit that connects potential do-
nors with teachers in public schools, to
identify classrooms with specific book
needs and help map the tour’s route.
Running from June 13 to June 21,
the tour will make stops in New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Ten-
nessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Spillman will share driving duties with
Jeff Waxman, partnerships director of
House of SpeakEasy, and a few guest
poets will even take brief stints behind
the wheel. Over the course of their
winding southward journey, the mo-
torists will distribute more than fourPoetry to the People Tour
Tr e n d s
jasmina tomicThe House of SpeakEasy’s bookmobile
at the Brooklyn Book Festival in 2017.