Earlier in 2014, we at the Arab British Centre, had the pleasure of working with Beau Beausoleil, the founder of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project, who also visited us and stayed with us for a few days and engaged with a new audience in London. The outcomes of which can be seen here.

Now, Beausoleil has embarked on a new artistic venture and has this to say about the bookmarks:

“I now have 8 writers/artists who have signed on to make bookmarks that say, Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here. Those bookmarks will then be left/posted in the shared cultural spaces of their communities. The idea here is to move people to find out just what this street name means, and hopefully, to think about how this street (and its writers artists and readers) is no different than the space where they have encountered the bookmark. And maybe they will talk about this bookmark with a friend and then attend the next project exhibit that is anywhere close to them.”

There are of course, some parameters to this project, but if you’d like to be involved, have a read below and then get in touch with the team using the email address and the bottom of this blog:

1. Make, and distribute, at least 50 bookmarks.

2. Use cardstock or any paper heavier than typing paper.

3. Make them the size of an ordinary bookmark, our store bookmark is 2 inches by 5 1/2 inches, but yours can be longer.

4. I’d rather that you not just place them in a stack somewhere, I’d rather that you paste/post them (maybe slip one into a library book) or some imaginative place. Maybe hand one to someone you see reading on the bus or the tube. Maybe start a conversation.

5. Don’t get caught doing this! I can bail out maybe one or two of you, but not more than that.

6. You can write the line out by hand, you can make a rubber stamp, you can letterpress it, it can be roughshod or beautiful. But don’t lose the words in the beauty!!

7. Take a photo of one or more of your “placements” and tell me about any associated adventures or conversations.

8. Work solo or with a group.

9. Send me five bookmarks for our archive (include your name, city and country).

10. Feel free to work in other languages besides Arabic or English.

Contact: Beau Beausoleil overlandbooks@earthlink.net or UK coordinator Sarah Bodman Sarah.Bodman@uwe.ac.uk