Building a New Writ Large
We’re so happy to send out this newsletter, our very first. We will write to you every other week, to keep you posted on what we are doing, to let you know about some dope events happening around the country. And to share with you interesting things we’ve come across that we think you will to.
Let’s begin with our name change – from Writ Large PRESS to Writ Large PROJECTS.
Throughout our history as a publisher, Writ Large Press has been about more than just selling books. As we’ve often said, books are just a means, a detail of a more important thing—community. Writ Large has always been about our neighbors, our friends, our fellow human beings. We have been about protecting, celebrating & showcasing the people we live next to in our cities.
This has led us to (in)famously produce events and gatherings like #90X90LA, Grand Park Downtown BookFest, LAB•FEST, PUBLISH! and Drunken Masters, even when we had no books coming out, when none of our authors were featured.
Our next phase is no different.
We officially went from press to projects because we have so many more experiments coming up that goes beyond anything we’ve done before.
Writ Large Books & Collaborative
The project we are most focused on right now and, honestly, feel most fish out of water on is opening our very first physical space. It would be in Braddock, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh, where Judy and Chi are currently living.
This is the building we are looking to secure and fix up.
Yeah, we are trying to buy it, to own it so we can’t be pushed out and more importantly, so the neighborhood doesn’t lose a space built for them. Writ Large Books & Collective will be a bookstore, a coffee shop, a community space, a storymaking lab. It will be a research center, a place for experimentation, to create and to showcase, a place that is essential to the residents of the neighborhood. We are approaching it as our pilot location. We want to put down roots all around the country.
We have been talking to banks about small business loans and putting in applications for grants and awards.
Soon we will be pitching the business to friends and family to invest in. And after that, to start-up investors.
Even though our plan is to open this in Pennsylvania, we all know our anchor is in Los Angeles. We will continue to build on what we’ve already achieved in LA with Peter on the ground there, so expect more pop-ups and festivals and, hopefully, a space there too.
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We’re very excited that a couple of you have already contacted us about investing! For everyone who are also interesting in supporting this next phase of Writ Large by investing, please contact us at writlargepress@gmail.com.
