from my email from Temporary Services/Half Letter Press

 

Hello Everyone! Thanks to everybody that came to see us in April and May at the multiple fairs we took part in. Meeting new readers and connecting with other publishers is always a joy; nothing beats the direct distribution of publications, from our hands right into yours.   This Friday in Chicago we’ll return to the great space Walls Turned Sideways where Marc will take turns on the turntable with our old friend Josh MacPhee. Both will be presenting a playlist of records recorded in, with, and for prisoners in the Midwest. Half Letter Press will have a small table of publications for purchase. Events at Walls Turned Sideways always feel like a giant hug (and they provide delicious free food) so it would be lovely to see you. The event is from 6:30 - 8:30 PM on Friday, June 12th, at 2717 W. Madison Street. It’s free to attend. While we slowly compile material for upcoming Temporary Services publications, we unearthed nearly a hundred copies of our booklet Abandoned Signs that were hiding in storage, so that is back in stock. We also added a whole slew of publications about signs by our friends at Secret Riso Club. They are fellow travelers who reached out to us to carry our work and instead of the usual wholesale agreement, we did a big barter. If you find yourself in Brooklyn, be sure to pick up our work at their space. They have a nice selection of it! We’re taking a break from fairs for a minute; find us online or in the stores that support our work. We love supporting USPS and orders rarely linger unfilled for more than 24 hours these days, so mail order away! Hope to see you soon and thank you for all of the continued support. Marc and Brett SIGN-A-RAMA! Abandoned Signs $7.00 Temporary Services booklet #116 returns to our fixation on Public Phenomena, this time with a focus on abandoned signs from the Midwest (mostly Chicago, and Fort Wayne and Auburn, Indiana). Over 50 photos fill this full color booklet. View Signs and Artifacts no. 5: Mexico City $35.00 By Secret Riso Club with Can Can Press This publication is part of a project aiming to document storefront signs for local businesses and graphic artifacts found in cities around the world. Volume #5 features signs from Mexico City. These signs are iconographic reprenstations of the neighborhood they are in and are marks of its cultural identity. They are often ghostly artifacts of design which connect us to an older city that will soon be destroyed or buried by gentrifiaction and the construction of the new. When isolated from the landscape, we can observe more closely the design and character of these signs and artifacts. View Signs and Artifacts no. 4: Bed Stuy $20.00 By Secret Riso Club “Signs & Artifacts” is part of a project aiming to document storefront signs for local businesses found around New York City. Volume 4 features signs from Bedford Stuyvestant, Brooklyn. View Signs and Artifacts no. 3: Lower East Side $25.00 By Secret Riso Club Signs and Artifacts Number 3 features signs from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Please support long-term local businesses that were in the neighborhood before you. View Signs and Artifacts no. 2: Bushwick $20.00 By Secret Riso Club Signs and Artifacts Volume 2 features signs from Bushwick, Brooklyn. View NEW OFFERINGS Leave A Record postcard (set of 4) $3.00 By Public Collectors What do you mail to your friend who needs a reminder that their voice is worth publishing, no matter how small the format? This postcard! Hand them out to students too. View How to Defend Books and Why: Book Bans and How We Fight Them $16.00 By Danny Caine   Danny Caine offers an expertly-crafted confrontation of far-right, Christian nationalist attempts to reshape American culture through ban campaigns targeting schools, libraries, bookstores, and prisons, with the aim to silence marginalized identities in life and in literature.  From the first-ever banned books display at San Francisco's City Lights in the 1950s to the rapid rise of so-called Moms For Liberty during the COVID-19 pandemic to attempts to silence Palestinian authors, Caine charts the course of repressive censorship campaigns, along with the creative and sometimes unlikely activists who've stood up against them. Each chapter is based on a particular book banning episode, bolstered by research and legal precedent, and concludes with helpful takeaways for further reading or resistance.   View RECENT & DECENT How to Protect Bookstores and Why: The Present and Future of Bookselling $16.00 By Danny Caine A fascinating book for bookstore lovers, people thinking about opening a store, and civic-minded readers. In addition to thoughtful action items in each chapter, Danny Caine hit the road and visited lots of great shops - particularly in the midwest, and collected valuable stories and experiences at each spot. It’s extra good to see words from Semicolon (Chicago!), A Room of One’s Own (Madison!) and our old friends at Red Emma's (Baltimore!) in the mix, among other places we have yet to visit.  View What Problems Can Artist Publishers Solve? (2026 reprint) $8.00 For this booklet we invited 17 artist publishers to respond to the question: Thinking locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally: What are some social, political, economic and ecological problems that artist publishers are equipped to address or solve using their knowledge, skills, and resources?