Project Wins Funds from the St. Paul Knight Arts Challenge
We are delighted to announce that Coffee House Press is one of 40 grantees selected to bring new art to St. Paul through the Knight Arts Challenge. As part of Coffee House’s ongoing Books in Action programming, which encourages reader/writer exchange beyond the page, Coffee House will create the Coffee Sleeve Conversation project. This project will foster community conversations on race and the arts through the production and distribution of coffee cup sleeves featuring the words of St. Paul writers of color.
For the Coffee Sleeve Conversation project guest curator, Tish Jones, will select work for the sleeves from her research and solicitation of work from writers of color in St. Paul. To allow for community participation, there will also be an open call for submissions announced online. Approximately 10,000 sleeves will be printed and distributed to St. Paul residents over the course of three months by several St. Paul coffee shops including Workhorse Coffee Bar and Nina’s Coffee Cafe.
The Coffee Sleeve Conversation series will expose thousands of people in St. Paul to the words, perspectives, ideas, and thoughts of twenty writers of color in the St. Paul community. By focusing on local writers of color, the series will point to the depth and excellence of writing from people of color that is already available in the community, and catalyze and enlarge the conversation on diversity, media, activism, and art both locally and nationally.
About Coffee House Press:
Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Coffee House Press is an independent, nonprofit literary publisher of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. The mission of Coffee House Press is to publish exciting, vital, and enduring authors of our time; to delight and inspire readers; to contribute to the cultural life of our community; and to enrich our literary heritage. By building on the best traditions of publishing and the book arts, Coffee House produces books that celebrate imagination, innovation in the craft of writing, and the many authentic voices of the American experience. Visit coffeehousepress.org for more information.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation:
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.
For more information, please contact:
Mandy Medley, Publicist
Coffee House Press
79 Thirteenth Avenue NE, Ste 110
Minneapolis, MN 55413
mandy@coffeehousepress.org
(612) 338-0125
Marika Lynch, Knight Foundation Communications Consultant
media@knightfoundation.org
305-908-2677