On September 27 in Ulyanovsk the LiteraTour on a trolleybus took place for the first time. A lot of passengers registered - and not one, but two trolleybuses went on a literary journey. Ulyanovsk residents were able to listen to the texts of not only local authors, but also writers from different countries of the world. New Zealand poet David Howard was a special guest on the tour.

As explained in the directorate of the program "Ulyanovsk - a literary city of UNESCO", the action was a continuation of the event "Literary tram". Let us remind you that this summer such a tram passed through the city for the fourth time. Now the organizers decided to hold an action in the Volga region, so for the new LiteraTour, themes were chosen that unite two banks: rivers, bridges and the city. The task of such actions is to introduce literature into the urban space, where nothing of the kind usually happens. It is no coincidence that this time stops were made not only in the center of the Zavolzhsky region, but also on its outskirts. The route started at the park of the 40th anniversary of the Komsomol, then continued through the new city and ended at the Pribrezhny Park.

Fragments of the works were performed by actors, journalists and social activists.

The tour was opened by the message of the local bridge chronicler Ivan Yakushin about the opening of the bridge in our city, read by the representative of the directorate of the program "Ulyanovsk - the city of UNESCO literature" Daniil Namisnik.

Local authors also read their texts: Igor Ulitin, Danila Nozdryakov and Vyacheslav Savin.

A special guest of the Literary Trolleybus was the poet from Dunedin (New Zealand) David Howard, who in September worked at the writer's residence under the program “Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature”. Passengers of the trolleybus heard not only the author's poems in the original, but also their translations into Russian by the poets Sergei Gogin and Gala Uzryutova.

A surprise was the presentation of an excerpt from the Volga region novel by Irina Bogatyreva "Vedyana" (an author who grew up in Ulyanovsk) performed by Valeria Kamenskikh, a student of the theatrical faculty of UlSU.

Absurdus theater actress Margarita Zakharova presented poems by Canadian author Stuart Ross dedicated to his city of Coburg.

TV channel's "Reporter" correspondent Lera Chaurova introduced the passengers to the text “House on the Crown” by Nina Drogolyub, a local historian from Ulyanovsk.

Also in the Literary Trolleybus an Open Microphone worked, and passengers were able to share their texts.

The organizers of "LiteraTour" are: the directorate of the program "Ulyanovsk - a literary city of UNESCO", the Department of Culture and Organization of Leisure of the Population of the Administration of Ulyanovsk, "Centralized Library System" with the support of the MUP "Ulyanovskelectrotrans".

For reference

In 2015, Ulyanovsk received the status of the Most Reading Region of Russia, and also entered the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the Literature direction. Today, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network unites 180 cities from 72 countries of the world.

Photo - Igor Ulitin, and also from the archive of the directorate of the program "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature"