INSP

When books take to the streets

BY SIMON BOLDUC

If you’re walking down the street and someone stops you to ask if you’d like them to read you a book excerpt, don’t worry, it’s not a scam. Chances are, it’s a volunteer from Le Liseur Public, a mobile reading project that aims to bring the world of books to places where it’s least expected.

The scene is striking. Young adults in job training programs are being read to in the middle of a woodworking factory in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. All the machines are paused, and a large circle of chairs has been formed. Some apprentice woodworkers sit frozen, silent, and questioning, while others react to every phrase of Marie-Andrée Gill's poetic Chauffer le dehors (Heating the Outside). Once the reading is finished, the reader asks who would like to take the book home for free. A shy young woman stands up, grabs the book, and tucks it away in her locker at the end of the session.

Or consider this: a family is eating at Chic Resto Pop community restaurant when they are politely interrupted: "Would you like me to read you an excerpt from a Quebec comic book?" asks Marie-Josée Gonthier, an animator for Le Liseur Public. The family, initially hesitant, finish their dinner with smiles and a table full of books to take home.

These groups of people, who frequent community organizations in eastern Montreal, are starting to get used to the presence of public readers. For five years, they have wandered through organizations for families, fathers struggling with their children, and special needs classrooms, as well as into the streets for the general public, at outdoor events, in retirement home courtyards during the pandemic, and at homeless shelters. The modus operandi is always the same: offer a reading aloud, question the audience, and give away the book at the end.

In the small office of Le Liseur Public, located at the Carrefour jeunesse-emploi Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, a local youth employment center that oversees the project, a ton of books clutter the desk. Marie-Josée Gonthier constantly receives and purchases books by Québécois authors. She also has to read them to present them to her team of volunteers for the next scheduled outing. An hour before going to read in public, she and a few volunteer readers prepare excerpts from the books on the table that they will read to their group.

"I spend a lot of time reading the books we receive and buying the ones we'd like to share," says the project coordinator. "We adapt the works according to the people we meet. We tailor our approach, especially for groups that may have several preconceptions about what reading is. We try to play with that."

Beyond sharing literature, public reading moments often lead to unforgettable encounters, explains Gonthier. She recalls a young man who confided in her about starting to read in prison. He cited a book by writer Jean-Christophe Réhel that was his introduction to the world of words and pages. Touched by his testimony, she dropped off the author's other books a few days later at the address where the young adult was working.

She also recounts the time when, emotionally, she read an excerpt from Martine Delvaux's book, J'en ai jamais parlé à personne (I never spoke about it to anyone), which recounts stories of abuse in the wake of the #MeToo movement. "We were at the corner of Ontario and Pie-IX streets, at the bus stop," she says. "The woman was elderly, and she agreed that I read her an excerpt. She told me after that she had just learned that her granddaughter had been raped."

These impromptu moments of sharing can lead to all sorts of reactions and emotions. That's the experience of Le Liseur Public.

In 2019, project founder Olivier Courtois, trained in theater, had a small project in mind that he eventually presented to the CJE Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. Initially a pilot project, Le Liseur Public quickly gained recognition, particularly for its ability to adapt during the pandemic and lockdowns. With this visibility and more resources to grow the project, Le Liseur Public was quickly integrated into the Montreal Book Fair before joining the provincial network of book fairs more broadly.

For the past two years, what was supposed to be a temporary project operating in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood has multiplied in other youth employment centers in Quebec. Today, there are teams of readers in Quebec City, Drummondville, Saint-Jérôme, and Trois-Rivières.

Courtesy of L’Itinéraire / INSP.ngo