People's Paper Co-op

People's Paper Co-op Transforming the Narrative of Re-entry

The People's Library and Paper Collective works with a multitude of individuals and community partners to start a People’s Library storefront in North Philadelphia that will serve as:
A command center for criminal record expungement workshops, community think tanks, legal literacy and know your rights workshops, voter registration drives, and other interventions that engage collectively with the

causes, effects, and alternatives to social justice issues in North Philadelphia. A start-up creative business and workforce- development program where re-entry adults and youth create hand-made fine papers and books from discarded paper-based material (shredded criminal records from the expungement clinics), author community histories, host open-mic spoken word and poetry readings, and lead weekly writing clubs that encourage dialogue with incarcerated friends and family. The project was instigated by Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist as part of the SPACES residency program at the Village of Arts and Humanities.

Hey y'all!👋We've been real quiet on here for a minute; trying to find some time to spend on things that keep us as well ...
09/14/2023

Hey y'all!👋

We've been real quiet on here for a minute; trying to find some time to spend on things that keep us as well as we can be when everything feels real heavy. Hope y'all are doing the same!

So here we are, saying hi 💜 Today, we're thankful for cooler days. And as always, we're thankful for the chance to spend time and do the work together, and to work alongside so many dedicated wonder humans and abolitionists 🔗🔥

Please take care of yourselves and each other!!!

Photo of 📷 director Courtney and Faith with their heads together, smiling wide, looking very cute 🙂 taken outside on the beautiful campus of our home, , in front of a colorful background with a tiled mosaic angel and a flower filled mural 💐

So sorry if this is how you're learning of this impossible loss.Our dear friend and comrade Josh Glenn passed last week....
08/21/2023

So sorry if this is how you're learning of this impossible loss.

Our dear friend and comrade Josh Glenn passed last week.

We're sharing this GoFundMe to help provide some support for his wife and children.

Josh was an incredibly dedicated and powerful advocate for change. He spent years working across Philly, using his experiences to fight for justice in an effort to ensure that others didn't have to experience the same oppressive systems.

Amidst many other things, Josh was a proud dad, husband, friend, mentor and community advocate.

We're so deeply honored to have worked with him for many years as a leader within the Reentry Think Tank and People's Paper Co-op; he will be missed tremendously and so many folks are grieving and in shock. Sending so much good energy to Josh's biological, chosen, and family

If you knew Josh, or knew him through his work, please consider making a donation.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/uptrx-memorial-fund-to-support-joshs-family

Thanks for your generosity. Take good care of yourselves and each other.

We love you, Josh

It's not , but as always, All Cats Are Beautiful ✨🐯💜If you wanna get yourself some beautiful art made by incredible wom...
07/30/2023

It's not , but as always, All Cats Are Beautiful ✨🐯💜

If you wanna get yourself some beautiful art made by incredible women in the in collaboration with so many rad artists from across North America, all while supporting to help bring folks home, today is the day! 🔗🔥

The sale (prolonged by a broken 🖥️) ends tonight! Everything ordered today will go out via priority mail tomorrow📫💌! We'll be closing the store for a minute too while we take a much needed break and hug friends and nature 🍀🐌🐳👋

Thanks to everyone who has supported in any way! It seriously means so much!💖

Our dear friend and colleague Lu , badass director of environmental initiatives , is kindly modeling this year's T-s...
07/14/2023

Our dear friend and colleague Lu , badass director of environmental initiatives , is kindly modeling this year's T-shirt, designed by rad, based wizard and printed by 🔗🔥💅

Someone's computer broke 😬which means not only is the store still up, so is the sale! Till it's resurrected 💻🧟‍♂️ and till we can add some more items to the store that we currently can't, it'll stay that way. So buy some beautiful artwork and help free folks!

We'll keep you posted and THANK YOU for the continued support!!!

Gahhhhhh! Look what arrived in the mail today!!!💖In 2021, we had the great pleasure of collaborating with wizard human ....
07/12/2023

Gahhhhhh! Look what arrived in the mail today!!!💖

In 2021, we had the great pleasure of collaborating with wizard human .wren.moor for the !Sisters!Queens! poster series💐👑

For the last couple years, we've been so happy and grateful to work with the kind folks to make some of the special, limited edition on the have made from

We are blown away by how gorgeous this print, featuring our friend and comrade Starr, turned out! The second slide shows beyon's design for the digital poster. They are both so amazing and capture Starr so beautiful✨

Thank you again beyon!!! Thank you Hoofprint!!! 💜

This limited edition print will be available on our store later (maybe my computer crashed when I was adding it...😬👎)

Reminder that we're having a sale till tomorrow at 8pm. 100%of proceeds from every purchase will go to to help free our people! 🔗🔥

Looky what we got this morning!!! 💜💜💜The timing for the arrival of this year's t-shirts felt extra appropriate. We will ...
06/30/2023

Looky what we got this morning!!! 💜💜💜

The timing for the arrival of this year's t-shirts felt extra appropriate. We will someday, hopefully soon, no longer need to from . And as we know, there are so many, too many, other things mamas, we, our folks need to be free from. Today as we try to navigate the smoke from forest fires, we're thinking about freedom from the and in the case of a certain group of moms who are visiting our fair city, freedom from and 👎

This year's rad design is by based artist Scout Cartagena and has the perfect combo of strength and softness were hoping for. Hands with long ass nails ripping apart and a emerging from its showing and . We love it. 💅⛓️🦋💜

Thanks to our pal Jeff for printing these beauties! If you placed a preorder, they went in the mail today 📫 If you're sad you didn't, you can still order one from our website. 100% of sales go to support to help bring our folks home! 🔥

I can't wait to wear my new at the protests this weekend. See you there. Take care and look after each other!!! 🫂

Hey ! 👋You may have noticed over the past month that there are some beautiful around town (yes, we said those words t...
05/28/2023

Hey ! 👋

You may have noticed over the past month that there are some beautiful around town (yes, we said those words together...) dreaming of the future world where no women are locked up 💖

We love utilizing diverse types of installations to spread the word about the poster campaign and the need to and ⛓️🔥

We are overjoyed with how these turned out, and each time we've seen them in person, we catch our breath and smile wide🌈🎉

The digital ones will stop running soon (and are so hard to photograph!), the physical ones are up through June 4th at Ridge and 10th, and Susquehanna and Broad. Check em out while you can and share your images with us if ya wanna 🫂

Mad thanks to .hon and the other artists listed below for turning your gorgeous images into billboards and to for traversing the city at all hours of the day and night to capture these photos 📷 🌞🌌



Image 1:
Image 2:
Image 3 :
Image 4:

Sending a giant THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased artwork from the and this year's ! Sisters! Queens! poster se...
05/22/2023

Sending a giant THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased artwork from the and this year's ! Sisters! Queens! poster series... 💐💕👑Sales from art sales this year have helped bring home 15 Black mamas and caregivers!!! But we're not stopping yet!

Wanted to save the last piece from this year's series by Caitlin Blunnie till today to let you know that we'll be keeping the store up through June, with 100% of proceeds going to our friends ⛓️🔥💜

When Caitlin shared her sketch, we a) couldn't believe it was a sketch, b) were overjoyed to see that she included so many details from the future world we imagined, where no women are locked up. This illustration features Tracey, holding a microphone amidst the clouds; there's a rainbow, laughing children running through a sprinkler, flowers, soaring birds, and trees, with text from collective we shared 🎤🌈🌷

From Caitlin “Imagination is the first step towards liberation, and I was honored to help bring the PPC Art and Activism Fellows vision of freedom to life. Our mothers don’t belong behind bars, they deserve to be at home in their communities thriving. Together we can imagine a world that supports our families by investing into jobs, education, housing, and healthcare instead of prisons and policing.” Thank you this and for being an absolute joy to work with, Cailtin 💖

You can get this poster in the full sets available in the link in our bio or the individual print from our dear friends and comrades !!!! We need for all of our mothers, sisters, queens to be free!🕊️

Here you also see the portrait it's based on 📸 ,Tracey holding a framed version of the illustration, and the worst photo of a glorious (check it out at Susquehanna and Broad in !!!) 💪



.hon

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in our lives, biological, adopted, chosen! 💜Know today is complicated for so many fol...
05/14/2023

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in our lives, biological, adopted, chosen! 💜

Know today is complicated for so many folks, for so many reasons; know you're thought of, that we're sending our love and strength. Sending it to all the moms, all the caregivers, the supporters, the nurturers, all for who today is hard, all who support moms, all the moms that can't be with us, all those missing their moms, all the moms missing their kids...

We're also sending sincere, weepy thanks to everyone who has bought art and donated to bring and in jail home to celebrate with their families, communities, and loved ones.

Take good care of yourself and each other 🌺❤️🌻❤️🏵️

📷

Woke up still beaming and feeling all the love and power from the pop up art exhibit and welcome home event at the jail ...
05/13/2023

Woke up still beaming and feeling all the love and power from the pop up art exhibit and welcome home event at the jail yesterday 💕🌹 was sooooo incredible 💜

Mother's Day is tomorrow, and the bail fund will be buying back the freedom of folks all month. Want to help?! Buy art created by the incredible women in the in collaboration with unbelievably skilled and dedicated from across North America- all proceeds go to bring folks home... Like this gorgeous poster done in collaboration with the amazing Sinha Hon .hon 💜❤️💕

"Strong Weathered Hands" features multiple cradled safely with strong hands like in the background with throughout, and the amazing Doreen smiling wide. Doreen designed the photo (taken by ) to represent all races coming together to and the text is based on advice her brother gave her🌻

From Singha: “It has been an honor to be part of this year’s cohort of illustrators working to support the PPC in their goal to keep women free. I was so inspired to hear firsthand the stories, poems, and dreams and be entrusted to translate them into this poster, with multiple people sharing how their experiences led towards solidarity, mentorship, and hope. In this image, I hope to honor these sentiments and invite viewers to take action and join arms with us towards freedom.” 🔥

When folks at the saw this beauty, they described it as a "movie poster from the future world where no women are locked up." Hell yeah. Thank you Singha, so happy to work with you 💜



The Village of Arts and Humanities

Still reeling from the beauty of today's . When we say it's one of the most beautiful days of the year, we don't mean w...
05/12/2023

Still reeling from the beauty of today's . When we say it's one of the most beautiful days of the year, we don't mean weather. It's an unimaginable honor to be part of something so beautiful, and fight alongside so many dedicated wonder humans Now we just need to 🔥⛓️

The donations made to and art bought from us at helped buy the freedom of 13 and THANK Y'ALL! is hoping to free more folks over the coming weeks, you can help by buying art from the link in our bio or directly donating.

Today felt appropriate to share this beauty by
based Elizabeth Blancas "Written in the Stars" features Tracey and Telfa, looking and being strong as hell, with beautiful words by Doreen "With my Freedom, I promise to find something every day that will make me laugh or smile." Smiling so wide.💫

From Elizabeth: “I chose to be a part of this project because I know abolition is the only way forward and as an artist I get to create the visual language that helps us envision this free future. It’s such a privilege to work directly with folks who have been system impacted as they are the experts on how we transform justice.”

Thank you, Elizabeth 💖
hon The Village of Arts and Humanities

05/12/2023

It's one of the most beautiful days of the year. We're outside the jail to welcome the moms, that are being bailed out, home. WELCOME HOME!

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2558 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA
19133

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