Free the Books!

Hello! We’re huge Carla Hayden stans here at Starshaped and it was a delight to print her words for the next Free the Books poster. We’re also super jealous of everyone at the ALA conference this weekend who got to hear her in person. A longtime advocate of expanding the reach and services of libraries for all people, we can’t wait to see what she does next.

Here’s the Free the Books call to action, as well as the pdf with ideas to get you going.

Our first contribution this month is from our pal Michael at Clawhammer Press, who celebrated Canadian Independent Bookstore Day back in April with a demo at Polar Peek Books in Fernie, BC.
From Michael:

It’s amazing to me that as a small, rural town we can support a bookstore; this little shop in particular is thriving and growing, but it’s not without weaknesses. During this time of tariffs and counter-tariffs, the Canadian book industry would be hit hard. Because of the sparsity of our population there are not many book printers in Canada. As a result, most of our Canadian publishers must look to the USA to print our books, which means they are both printed and stored in the US, and shipped to Canada. Margins on books are paltry at best, and our independent book stores would likely not weather that storm. The Canadian book industry is teetering on the brink of being a speed bump to international trade politics. For now, cooler heads have prevailed, so we are doing what we can to promote our local shop.

For the demo I ordered a stack of pre-made journals, and cut up some random make-ready cast-off ink-wipes and spent the day talking to people about letterpress, the history of printing, and celebrating Polar Peek Books. We handed out free prints and notebooks to anyone who wanted them, and sent people home with a little reminder about how important books are to our lives. I recently attended a conference on literacy and the statistics are quite remarkable for communities and countries: Literacy = happiness = health. Increased literacy raises your GDP. It lowers spending on healthcare. Reading is quite literally good for the economy, and your soul. Keep reading free humans! Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t read—especially not the government.

And speaking of indie bookstores, one of our faves is The Shop at Matter in Denver, Colorado. Rick and Debra do an incredible job creating an inclusive space for incubating ideas and taking action. And there’s a print shop! Check them out if you’re in the area, or online. Books! Prints! Stationery! Good Design! Below is a recent ongoing project with a note from Rick:

The Racist Stapler is an allegory, involved in a critique of the capitulation of various bureaucrats and politicians who support the erasure of people, good policy, and history. We stand with people who know that understanding the history of our circumstance is an essential aspect of the progress we seek.
The prints aren’t available online but are in the shop.

Quick Notes:

The Every Library Institute has issued a report called The Censorship Acceleration - An Analysis of Book Ban Trends since 2020 and you can check it out, as well as the mission of the Institute.

Check out Prism/Prison, a recent project with Chicago Books to Women in Prison. Reading IS a human right!

Fleeting Beauty: Theory of Paste-up with Jess Snow is one of many fabulous workshops at the upcoming Ladies of Letterpress conference. Jess will be sharing tips for taking your work to the streets with the theme of ‘freedom to read’.

And for inspiration, read the Freedom to Read Statement from the ALA and read about the current administration’s efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Want to contribute to a future newsletter with your prints/actions around book banning? Email me.