AROUNDD copy
6/24/10
11:25 PM
Page 2
Around Town Around Town
Molly & Company Paris of the 1930s this ain't. Maria Eliades seeks solace from the beating rays in Istanbul's unexpected expat poetry scene. If you are lured down Camekan Sokak by the colourful shops and boutiques, you’ll have a hard time missing the literary hangout of Istanbul: Molly's Café. Nestled at the foot of Galata Tower, the café is a regular mecca for the prolific John Ash and the meeting ground for the city's emerging writers. On any given Saturday afternoon, Molly's patrons make their pilgrimage to the book and knickknack-filled venue not for the scones, apple pie and North American cuisine, but for the chance to hear some poetry read aloud. A DELTA OF WORDSMITHS Molly Farquharson, owner and designer of the café, never had aspirations to host the poetry community. After 25 years of teaching in Istanbul, opening a café was an easy choice. She knew the community and saw space for a comfy haven where she could accommodate them. She opened in December 2008 in a location across the street from her current shop. The readings came almost immediately after the opening. A few poets, who knew Farquharson as just another old guard expatriate, approached her about doing a reading. She said “yes.” The first reading
46 Time Out ‹stanbul July 2010
Nestled at the foot of Galata Tower, the café is a regular mecca for the prolific John Ash and the meeting ground of the city's emerging writers turned into a series of readings that has become as synonymous with the café as the quirky art for sale. The audiences grew from six to fourty. They pull in old resident poets
like Jeff Kahrs, Mel Kenne and John Ash of the “Istanbul School” of poetry, a newly formed group from Robert College, headed by Marita O'Neill and independents like Julie Doxsee and Derick Mattern. It was at the first reading at the old café that the Robert College group was born. Marita O'Neill says that it was at that reading that the teachers of the college identified each other as writers. The group now meets at the College every month to read each other's work and give criticism. When they read at Molly's, they take their work to town. “WE’RE NOT CLUBBABLE” Poets don't usually work in close proximity to each other, as Mel Kenne, an “Istanbul School” poet, admitted. Poets, Kenne says, are usually not community people, or in his own words, “not clubbable.” Groups come together when writers choose to come out of their hermitages. “We tend to thrive on solitude,” Kenne says. “Safe but Molly's organized meetings. We come to each other's readings most of the time, so we know each other. It's lucky that Molly's is in a central location, so it doesn't matter what side we're on or how far away we are. We can come here.” While teaching at Kadir Has University, Kenne often meets poets in an academic context. His university holds the most frequent readings with recognizable poets from abroad. Unfortunately, performances at Istanbul's universities and poetry festivals are usually held in
auditorium spaces that are rarely comfortable. Julie Doxsee, a Canadian-born, American-raised poet, sees Molly's on a parallel with poetry trends in the United States, particularly in venues like Brooklyn where Doxsee usually reads. Doxsee still has close ties with her American readership, which makes coming to the café a more exciting prospect. “Molly's Café has become the only good spot for the kind of readings poets like to do, which is communityfriendly with alcohol,” Doxsee says. “Many of the reading series’ in the States are becoming more like this, where either you have a café reading or an apartment reading, or a bar reading…and you can appreciate the experience more. That's how I see Molly's. It's a natural marriage to the kind of space we need.” Doxsee, along with Jeff Kahrs, was one of the first poets to read at Molly's. Like other poets on the Istanbul scene, and expatriate writers of the Lost Generation in Paris, Doxsee grows artistically from the city and the people. She is tied to readers and writers through Istanbul's own literary salon where the cappuccino comes with a side of verse. Visit mollyscafeistanbul.wordpress.com for the current and upcoming reading schedule. Molly's Café (0212) 245 16 9610. Camekan Sokak, Galata.