Booklyn Artist Alliance (Booklyn) is an artist-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1999 that works to promote, distribute, and archive artist books and book arts. [1] [2] Booklyn was founded, and continues to be governed by, artists. [3]
Originally located in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, [1] [2] Booklyn moved to the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York in early 2018. [4] [5] This relocation included plans for new education and archives initiatives. [4]
Booklyn initially originated out of several artist run projects: The Artichoke Yink Press run by Christopher Wilde, a Bookmobile artist book distribution system run by Wilde and Shon Schooler, and a Tuesday night artist gathering at 70 Commercial Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. [3] Marshall Weber, an original co-founder of Booklyn, remains involved as Directing Curator. [3]
The work of Booklyn involves a wide range of activities: representing contemporary artists; cultivating a distribution network across international institutions that may acquire work by Booklyn artists for their collections; and curating exhibitions in its own gallery space as well as at other institutions. [6] Education efforts at Booklyn involve lectures and workshops on various aspects of bookmaking, including bookbinding and zine-making. [5] [7] Educational materials are also distributed through resources such as the Booklyn Education Manual. [8]
The intention of Booklyn's artist-run distribution system was to interrupt the existing distribution networks dominated by private dealers. [3] Booklyn organizes the Sass & Zines: Celebrating QPOC / WPOC in Print event, and in 2019, Booklyn participated in the New York City Book and Ephemera Fair during New York's Rare Book Week by curating a Brooklyn Artists' Fair of forty artists whose work addresses diverse and contemporary issues. [5]
The artistic works represented by Booklyn include artist books, prints, drawings, publications, and zines, as well as the archives of individual artists. Booklyn also publishes and co-sponsors books. [9] Institutions that have worked with Booklyn to acquire materials for their own collection include University of Puget Sound, [10] Franklin & Marshall College, [8] Bucknell University [11] and Long Island University - Brooklyn. [12]
Booklyn has collaborated with Iraq Veterans Against the War (now About Face [13] ), on a series of portfolio projects dating back to the War is Trauma portfolio in 2008; some of these have also involved collaboration with Justseeds Artists' Cooperative and Combat Paper NJ. [14]
Booklyn's organizational archive is housed at Library of Congress. [9]
Exhibitions presented by Booklyn include:
A zine is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. A fanzine is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and popularized within science fiction fandom, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949.
Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and East Williamsburg; on the north by Newtown Creek and the neighborhood of Long Island City in Queens; and on the west by the East River. The neighborhood has a large Polish immigrant and Polish-American community, containing many Polish restaurants, markets, and businesses, and it is often referred to as Little Poland.
East Williamsburg is a name for the area in the northwestern portion of Brooklyn, New York City. East Williamsburg consists roughly of what was the 3rd District of the Village of Williamsburg and what is now called the East Williamsburg In-Place Industrial Park (EWIPIP), bounded by the neighborhoods of Northside and Southside Williamsburg to the west, Greenpoint to the north, Bushwick to the south and southeast, and both Maspeth and Ridgewood in Queens to the east. Much of this area is still referred to as either Bushwick, Williamsburg, or Greenpoint with the term East Williamsburg falling out of use since the 1990s.
Henry Chalfant is an American photographer and videographer most notable for his work on graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop culture.
ABC No Rio is a collectively-run arts organization on New York City's Lower East Side. It was founded in 1980 in a squat at 156 Rivington Street, following the eviction of the 1979-80 Real Estate Show. The centre featured an art gallery space, a zine library, a darkroom, a silkscreening studio, and public computer lab. In addition, it played host to a number of radical projects including weekly hardcore punk matinees and the city Food Not Bombs collective.
Philip Nicholas Seuling was a comic book fan convention organizer and comics distributor primarily active in the 1970s. Seuling was the organizer of the annual New York Comic Art Convention, originally held in New York City every July 4 weekend throughout the 1970s. Later, with his Sea Gate Distributors company, Seuling developed the concept of the direct market distribution system for getting comics directly into comic book specialty shops, bypassing the then established newspaper/magazine distributor method, where no choices of title, quantity, or delivery directions were permitted.
The Combat Paper is a project formed to help veterans cope with experiences in the war. It was based out of the Green Door Studio in Burlington, Vermont in the United States. Their processes include making paper out of their old uniforms to then create art on them as well as many other creative outlets for them to connect to fellow veterans. They have exhibits and workshops available to further expand their knowledge as well as connect on a more national level with others.
Christopher "Chris" Forgues,, is an artist and musician, best known for his graphic novel serial Powr Mastrs. He is based in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Julie Ruin is an American band formed in 2010 in New York City. The band rehearses in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and records at Oscilloscope and Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn. Band members include Carmine Covelli, Sara Landeau, Kathleen Hanna, Kathi Wilcox, and Kenny Mellman.
Dindga McCannon, born July 31, 1947, is an African-American artist, fiber artist, muralist, teacher author and illustrator.
The North Brooklyn Boat Club or NBBC is a Brooklyn-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting environmental stewardship and human-powered recreational boating on Newtown Creek and the East River. NBBC's mission is to reclaim, protect and celebrate the waterways.
Saint Vitus is a bar and music venue located in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Opened in April 2011, the 2,500 square feet (230 m2) venue is known for its heavy metal atmosphere. Some notable metal bands that have played there include Pentagram and Black Anvil. In April 2014, the surviving members of Nirvana performed at Saint Vitus with Joan Jett and Kim Gordon. Pitchfork writer Brandon Stosuy has also booked bands at the venue, such as Converge, Iceage, and Deafheaven.
Mark Wagner is an American artist best known for meticulous collages made of United States banknotes, such as the portrait of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke, composed exclusively of one-dollar bills, in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery. He is co-founder of The Booklyn Artist Alliance and has published over twenty artists’ books with Bird Brain Press and X-ing Books.
Beatrix Pang is a visual artist, cultural producer, educator and independent publisher based in Hong Kong. She has a BA in Photographic Design (2000) from School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and MA Photography (2005) from Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway.
Interference Archive is a volunteer-run library, gallery, and archive of historical materials related to social and political activism and movements. It is located in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The mission of the organization is "to explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements."
Ginger Brooks Takahashi is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York, and North Braddock, Pennsylvania. A self-identified “punk,” Takahashi grew up in Oregon. She co-founded the feminist genderqueer collective and journal LTTR and the Mobilivre project, a touring exhibition and library. She was also a member of MEN (band). Her work consists of a collaborative project-based practice. Takahashi is currently an adjunct professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.
Maureen Cummins is an American artist specializing in artists' books. In 1991, she founded Inanna Press. She remains the proprietor and continues to produce fine, limited-edition artists' books. Since 1993, when she created her own studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Cummins has produced over twenty-five limited-edition artists' books. Her work is held in over one hundred public and institutional collections around the world. She has been featured in shows with Kiki Smith, Fred Tomaselli, and Kara Walker. One of her books, Ghost Diary, held by the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University, is made of glass.
GenderFail is a publishing and programming initiative created by Be Oakley that seeks to encourage projects from an intersectional, queer perspective. Many projects are tied together by the slogan "Radical Softness as a Boundless Form of Resistance". The press is currently based out of Brooklyn, New York. In an April 16, 2020 article "Our Favorite New Yorkers on the Best Things in All Five Boroughs" in Conde Nast Traveler, curator Legacy Russell mentioned GenderFail as one of their favorite things in New York.
Rachel Farmer is an American artist. She is primarily known for her ceramic sculpture and installations. Farmer's work explores Mormon history from a feminist and queer perspective, and is informed by her roots in the Utah area.
Tia Blassingame is an American book artist, publisher, and professor at Scripps College.