press press storefront studio, library, + youth program
storefront studio, library, + youth program | Baltimore, MD, 2016 – 2020
The Press Press Library was a collection of resources and publications that were recommended and thematically organized by more than 35 individuals, collectives, and organizations throughout 2016-2017, each of which selected a range of resources they deemed most essential to their practices. While the collection was mostly created through a local contingency, it also worked in conversation with a national network of artist-organized initiatives.
The library was created as a way of collectively molding the culture of the space, holding Press Press’s work accountable to its context, and building on our approach to publishing. We often throw parties to honor any new grouping of library sections.
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Through a partnership with Baltimore City Community College Refugee Youth Project, Press Press facilitated a publishing-centered afterschool program with teen refugees in an immigrant and refugee only space from 2014 - 2017. The space was designed to counter the standard model of ESL (English Second Language) learning. The standard model operates in a way that erases or ignores the identities of the learners in an effort to fit them into the hegemonic linguistic mode of the United States.
The collaborative space Press Press created, conversely, places the identities and narratives of the participants as central in the experience of learning and using English; or learning how ‘to be’ in English as one’s second language without erasing one’s native voice.
Together, students created several publications and exhibitions, including 100% Yes, an exhibition at Current Space, and publications such as, the Chilly Smart Model and the Human Rights Declaration. Students also participated as co-authors in Press Press publications including, If I Ruled the World in 2016 and Sentiments: Expressions of Cultural Passage in 2018.