WRIT LARGE
LITERARY LABORATORY
COMING TO BRADDOCK, PA
Judeth stands in front of the building on 712 Braddock Ave, Braddock, PA—the future home of the Writ Large HQ.
WRIT LARGE LITERARY LABORATORY
After fifteen years of publishing, literary event production, and community building, Writ Large is opening our first brick-and-mortar location in Braddock, PA, a once flourishing historic steel town that we want to help return to a new glory.
The space will be called Writ Large Literary Laboratory, because it is more than a new and used bookstore and the HQ for Writ Large. It will be a coffee shop and community center, an events space and a recording studio, a learning and teaching center, and a necessary third-space for the predominantly Black population of Braddock.
Enter and be transformed.
Exit and transform the world.
Photo by Holly Northrop
BRADDOCK, PENNSYLVANIA
The historic and predominantly Black borough of Braddock, Pennsylvania is located just outside of Pittsburgh. It was once a thriving borough that was home to Andrew Carnegie's Edgar Thomson Steel Works, opened in 1873 (now United States Steel Corporation), and to The Braddock Carnegie Library, the very first of Carnegie's near 1700 public libraries, dedicated in 1889.
When the steel industry collapsed, so did Braddock. The current population is only 10% of the number at its peak. For decades, countless buildings have been boarded up and remained empty.
But the residents remain steadfast in creating a once-more bright future. We are incredibly proud to be part of this process.
WRIT LARGE X BRADDOCK
Almost ten years ago, in the summer of 2014 while we were debuting our groundbreaking #90x90LA festival, Judeth, one of our founders and partners, moved to Pittsburgh, PA to begin her PhD in Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. Chiwan soon followed and since then, we have been acclimating with the local residents and culture, supporting poets and bookstores, attending neighborhood events and becoming part of the city.
People who know our history of producing incredible arts and literary events and our ability to build and bring communities together wanted to know when we were going to do all of these things in our new home.
But we weren't ready, not because of any lack of confidence. We weren't ready because we don't believe in trying to make something the community didn't ask for, trying to bring people together without first learning and supporting the city, the neighborhood.
Well, 10 years later, we feel ready. And in 2023, Writ Large Projects was awarded a building, a neighborhood diner that had been boarded up for a long time, to bring our expertise, talents & ethos to Braddock to open a bookstore that could go beyond books, but to learning, to teaching, to experimenting, to creating.
Writ Large Literary Laboratory will begin its exciting journey of building and renovating when the deeds are transferred to us in 2024.
THE CONTINUING WRIT LARGE MISSION
Writ Large Press started over 15 years ago with one goal in mind: Make sure more voices get heard.
And the most direct way we could think of to help more writers get published is to publish them. So with a hand-drawn logo and a manuscript from the incredible LA-based poet Kim Calder.
When the large crowd showed up at the ranchero bar in downtown LA to celebrate the book—fans of the poet, writers we’d known, neighbors we met while while walking our dog, bartenders and other local service industry workers—we realized how much a book could be a meeting place for a diverse group of community members.
That has been our North Star ever since. To make sure art doesn’t exist for art’s sake. To put people first in what we do.
Writ Large Projects rethinks the publishing industry by centering community. We build networks of support to develop authors–especially those from historically marginalized communities, discover audiences, strengthen neighborhoods, and innovate new storytelling and publishing technologies.
“They are visionaries and builders. In this post-industrial world, they are pioneers.”
— Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running & former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles
Make a donation.
make a difference.
Your tax-deductible support will go directly into the creation of Writ Large Literary Laboratory, a bookstore and third-space that the community of Braddock deserves, into developing and implementing our literary and educational programming, into the continued publication of beautiful books from necessary writers & into our research and development of the future of publishing, a future that eschews the traditional in favor of a new model that benefits the numerous communities at large.
Whether you can afford a monthly $5 commitment or want to be an angel that wants to have a great impact on the world with us, each and every dollar will be cherished and used in a way you can be proud of.