Building inclusive, creative communities
Whether we’re taking our presses to the people at festivals and events, or using them to collaborate with community partners, PiP’s letterpress programs are all about lifting voices — and sharing the joy and empowerment that comes from printing your own words by hand.
Words of Courage
This longstanding annual partnership with Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools program has generated hundreds of letterpress-printed poetry broadsides written by patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Printed in many languages — including Lushootseed, Arabic, and Braille — Words of Courage is a vibrant example of how Partners in Print uses the power of the press to help amplify the voices of our most vulnerable community members.
Poetry for Everyone
Featuring the work of emerging, immigrant, and indigenous poets, these letterpress printed pocket poems are distributed freely at independent bookstores and National Poetry Month events in Washington State — a tangible reminder of what program founder Claudia Castro Luna calls, “the power and beauty of language.”
Print Futures
Print Futures supports new voices in letterpress by building bridges between emerging printers doing great work in educational institutions, community centers, and professional shops. This virtual presentation series is co-produced by Partners in Print (PiP) and Letterpress Educators of Art & Design (LEAD).
Community outreach
Whether we’re taking our presses to the people at festivals and events through Press Power, or making the them more accessible through Print Kit, PiP’s letterpress programs are all about lifting voices — and sharing the joy and empowerment that comes from printing your own words by hand.
Amplifying voices, one press at a time
Print Kit is a letterpress print shop in a box for organizations, educators, and libraries who share PiP’s vision of an inclusive creative community. By improving access to traditionally hard-to-source, specialized printmaking tools, Print Kits place the power of the press into a more diverse group of hands.
Civic engagement
The printing press has always been a powerful tool for democracy. You may have encountered PiP’s letterpress posters in the hands of demonstrators or hanging in storefront windows. They’ve celebrated democracy, resiliency, and hope; they’ve defended our basic human rights. Most of all, they echo the nationwide efforts of letterpress printers promoting inclusion and advocating for change.
Publications
Partners in Print pools our collective expertise to facilitate impactful publishing projects. From Claudia Castro Luna’s epic poem, One River a Thousand Voices; to Glenn Fleishman’s timely ruminations on type and technology, Not To Put Too Fine a Point on It; to countless special broadside projects for nonprofit organizations, we create beautiful — and meaningful — work.
