Friday, 9/16 at 7pm – RSVP on Facebook

Steve Almond, Tomas Moniz, and Jeremy Adam Smith are touring in support of Rad Dad: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Fatherhood, which PM Press published just a few weeks ago. “If buying a gender-neutral pacifier is the most radical thing you’ve done as a parent, Rad Dad will nudge you back on track,” says the SF Weekly.

Steve Almond lives in the Boston area with his beautiful and endlessly patient wife, Erin, and their chocolate addicts-in-training children, Josie and Judah. He’s also written some books: Candyfreak; My Life in Heavy Metal; Rock n Roll Will Save Your Life; and The Evil BB Chow.

Tomas edits and writes for the zine Rad Dad, which won a Best of the Bay award from the San Francisco Bay Guardian and an Independent Press Award for Best Zine. He lives with two amazing daughters, a bunch of chickens, bees, a cat and dog in south Berkeley.

Jeremy Adam Smith is the father of Liko, age 7; author of The Daddy Shift; coeditor of Rad Dad: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Fatherhood; founder of the acclaimed blog Daddy Dialectic; and a 2010–11 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.

It is our great pleasure to announce that Papercut will soon be sharing a space with our friends at Lorem Ipsum, an independent bookstore in Inman Square.

An exhibit featuring works by incarcerated artists opens this weekend and runs through September. The show, put together by local prison abolitionist groups Black and Pink and Boston Anarchist Black Cross, will be on display at Somerville’s Papercut Zine Library, located at 226 Pearl St. The space is open Saturdays and Sundays 2-7PM and by appointment. There will be a closing party Saturday September 17th at 7PM.

Highlighting prisoners’ own experiences, the exhibit sheds light on the conditions in which an ever-growing number of Americans find themselves. Incarcerating 2.3 million people, or nearly 1% of its population, the United States incarcerates a larger number and percentage of its populace than any other nation, beating out both China and Soviet Russia. 7.2 million, or around 3% of the US population, are under some form of punitive supervision. Courts disproportionately dole out punitive sentences to racial and/or sexual minorities. Black adult males, for instance, are almost 7 times more likely to be imprisoned than white male defendants. Exhibited alongside the art are these and other statistics to provide an objective context for the works.

Part of the show focuses on works by incarcerated LGBTQ people. Trans and queer people are more likely to be imprisoned than straight people and, once behind bars, encounter rampant harassment and abuse. Taken as a whole, the artwork displays a breadth of emotion and subject matter. Ranging from political indictments to some light-hearted moments, the works offer a window into how individuals can use art and creation as tools of survival in the midst of degrading and potentially violent conditions.

Given that parole in Massachusetts is in precipitous decline in the wake of the Parole Board’s gutting, there is a need to ask basic questions about our state, the values it’s founded on, and where to go from here. Boston ABC and Black and Pink hope this exhibit can provide an opportunity to ask these questions, and inspire action.

For more information on the groups behind this exhibit:

http://www.blackandpinkart.org/

Selected Sources:

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=35912

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/pjim06.pdf

Ever wanted to get involved at the zine library, but weren’t sure how?
Have some free time and want to just drop in and work on a few projects?

On Sunday, 6/26, we’re inviting anyone to drop in throughout the day to volunteer and learn about what it takes to be a collective member and/or volunteer!

Some projects we may be working on include:
-Re-shelving zines
-Cataloging
-Painting/decorating
-Cleaning/re-organizing
-Designing a new flyer

We will be going over our collective process and signing folks up for training shifts as well if they are interested.

Lunch provided!
(Facebook event here)

The Boston Latin School‘s afternoon drawing class made a trip out to Papercut recently! They were so excited about our collection, that they ended up making their own zine together. Thanks for sending us a copy, BLS. Come back any time :)

As you may have heard in our last post, we are extending our fund raising drive to make one final push to $3500!

As one of our final incentives we want to help you kick off summer in Boston right, so we’re raffling off chances to win great times and great treats from two of Somerville’s beloved eateries and treateries:

**A $20 gift certificate to Diesel cafe in Davis Square and
** A 10 person sundae party at JP Licks Homemade Icecream Cafe!! (lots of delish vegan options available)

Anyone who donates $5 or more will be entered in the raffle for the Diesel gift cert and anyone who donates $10 or more will be entered to win the sundae party!

You can donate via paypal here: http://bit.ly/jzTqtQ
Or send check or cash to 226 Pearl St / Somerville.

Help keep Papercut open and enjoy some of the tasty treats of Somerville!

Over a hundred wonderful patrons, friends, and supporters of the library contributed to last month’s fundraising drive. We raised a little over $2,700 — which is great — but it is not as much as we had hoped.

Here is our final push to make ends meet and keep the library open another year! We will continue to fund raise through events, shows, and grants, but with the help of this fundraiser it will not need to be our main focus. Meaning, we will have more time to spend finding the best ways to archive and share our collection with ya’ll, as well as reach out the the broader community through workshops, readings, and other events.

If you have not donated, just click the little Widget guy to the right of this blog post to send us $5 (or more) via Paypal/credit card! You can also send checks or well-concealed cash to: Papercut Zine Library, 226 Pearl St. Somerville, MA 02145

If you HAVE donated: THANK YOU so much. Now, do you have any friends who might have slacked a little or forgotten to donate? Remind them that with just $5 they can help us meet our goal. Everyone’s participation is important!

$3,500 here we come!

Check out our past blog entries, below, for recent and ongoing incentives. There will be some more raffles announced this week as well. The sooner you donate, the more chance you have of winning!

Had a great time at today’s Carnaval @SomerStreets!  We were glad to be asked to participate by East Somerville Mainstreets, a great, local non-profit “dedicated to developing community initiatives and events that reflect and promote the true character of East Somerville as a vibrant place to live, visit, and do business.”  It’s awesome to have the opportunity to connect with our neighbors and other members of the community!

Last week one of our last zine workshops supported by the Somerville Arts Council, “Zines in the Classroom: A Workshop for Educators” convened at the library.  As a former classroom educator, this workshop was very dear to my heart.  As I wrote in the workshop description, I am excited about the creation of DIY media as a powerful (as well as cheap and accessible!) way to empower students to process and express their knowledge and experiences.

Seven former and current classroom educators from Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island attended the workshop, arriving with a range of experiences with zines and zine culture and a host of interesting questions ranging from how to come up with successful prompts for students to the relationship between zines and on-line social media.

During the workshop we looked at zines made about teaching and learning before exploring resources in various sections of the PZL and concluded by creating our own “flash zine” about our experiences as educators.  Participants, your finished product is in the mail and on its way to you!  And others, come check it out as the newest edition to our collection.  It includes a list of selected suggested zines for the K-12 classroom.  Learn more about this workshop series here.