Hope A 10/26/16 Hope A 10/26/16

You can go your own way...

If you have never read Ker-Bloom zine, the 20 year project from artnoose, stop reading here, find yourself at least one issue, through etsy or your local zine shop, savor it, and we will meet up in the next paragraph.

Ker-bloom is a letterpress printed treasure. Every two months, 4 pages of text are offered, a monologue on a theme, a story, a glimpse. When I moved to Seattle in 1998, I would use all the money I made in consigning my zines at Left Bank Books for the latest issues of Ker-Bloom. It isn't just the writing, or the letterpress cover and pages, it is holding the package in your hands. It is precious. And bi-montly.

For the 20th anniversary issue artnoose wrote about starting this project and what it has evolved into. The idea for a project that started small but became their defining work.

I can relate to this. Eight years ago, I left New Orleans to go to college. I left behind a lot of good friends. I wanted to send mail to everyone I missed in New Orleans and my other penpals. But school kept me busy. One day in my first semester, I was biking home from class when I thought, what if I sent everyone the same postcard every month? What if I designed it and printed it. I could keep in touch with all my friends and have a creatively challenging project every month. Now it is the project that frames my month, how I set up my weeks. After recently reuniting with a friend I have known since high school but have not seen in years, we realized are both still doing the same work we've always been doing. He is still writing. I am still sending mail. Our work might take different forms, and but the essence remains the same. .

Now that I have moved back to New Orleans it is i a good time to notice how things have stayed the same, what remains true, how I have found a way within this truth. This is Keep Writing number 91. Sent a bit late. I am still adjusting to my new old life. But there is mail. And a new po box. An aisle away from my old one.

Do you want to receive monthly mail like the card above? subscribe here: www.gutwrenchpress.com/subscribe

Hope A 12/31/14 Hope A 12/31/14

More from the Desktop

The first datebook I ever made for myself was really just a tall journal with blank pages. Each page was a list. Once I ran out of room on one page, I would transfer the parts of the list that had yet to be completed and crossed off, and that still seemed important, and started again until I finished the next page. I did have a lot of deadlines, so it worked well. I like lists a lot. i subdivide lists into other lists. But the chance to reevaluate is important. To cut loose what is unnecessary, to re-prioritize. This might be what is so appealing about the idea of a new year. I know that January 1st is an arbitrary date to choose to start over, and check in, but it works for me, as I stay in a little more, have a little more slow time, and anyway my other favorite time to do this--my birthday--is nearly 6 months away from January 1st. So here are more things I saw this year that I wanted to share, other things people made that are inspiring and important and beautiful.

knotless knitting demo on handmade paper vessel by Tamaryn

zines procured from the new orleans book fair

Hope A 12/2/14 Hope A 12/2/14

Where You From?

With everything that has been going on in Ferguson and in cities all over the country, it has been hard to sit and write about zines and postcards. I've been watching the news, reading, and trying to find constructive things to say. And sometimes I've just been angry and sad. But the work to do in this country is ongoing and so while it becomes less in the forefront in my mind, I work to keep these struggles part of my every day conversation, while talking about the things I make too.

When I moved to Baton Rouge, LA six years ago, I was struck by how many people I met who were from Louisiana, from Baton Rouge and other smaller towns. I had been living in big cities most of my life, leaving my home state at 20 and even then, I had moved twice within that state. I become interested in the ideas about why people leave their home towns and why they stay. I wanted to explore the benefits of leaving a place when you've outgrown it and the benefit of staying rooted in one place. In 2 issues, I asked friends and acquaintances, many from Louisiana, to write about their experiences. This comprised the first 2 issues of Where you from?

Then 2 years ago I moved to Oakland after spending 6 months in Italy. I had a bunch of ideas to connect, from traveling with my sister in Sicily, talking with my grandmother about her parents home towns in Sicily, moving out west with my partner, who had lived in Baton Rouge his whole life. I thought I would have a new zine soon--I've sketched out a huge project in my head, with maps and letterpress printing and so the project is still just ideas. I got so stuck on that project that it's been years since I've made a new issue. So here it is.

I wanted to make a zine with the instant book form because it offers a great structure for telling two sides of a story. And it meant I could letterpress print some for fun while still digitally printing affordable copies. I chose to write about leaving places I've lived and returning.

It was harder than I realized to write these. When I was done, I slept for a week and they sat on my computer, waiting to be turned into files to become plastic plates to print. They are short, and the form thwarts my proclivity for run on sentences. But here it is: one sheet of paper, ten stories. Mostly about New Hampshire and New Orleans. One or two you may have heard before , maybe not. but now they are in print in a copy that fits in your pocket.

*****Did you want a copy? They are all available in my etsy store and if you live in the Bay Area, I'll be at the EBABZ this Saturday with a table full of stuff. And if you want to hear me read from it along with a bunch of other great zine writers including artnoose, come to the EBABZ reading this Thursday here. Phew.

Take care of each other ok?