Victor in the New World Launch Postponed

PLEASE NOTE: Tonight's scheduled launch party for Chad Reynolds's chapbook, Victor in the New World, has been postponed due to weather. We are rescheduling for Thursday, January 3rd at 8 pm.

We're sorry for any inconvenience, and hope you'll be able to join us in January. If you forwarded any of our previous emails regarding the reading, please help us spread the word about tonight's cancellation.

Victor must have a mind of winter, because it snows every time we think about him.

More details about the January 3rd event will follow.

Victor in the New World: Book Release

It's Christmas! And all Rope-a-Dope wants is for you to join us in celebrating the release of our first chapbook, Victor in the New World, by Chad Reynolds, with illustrations by Robert daVies.

"Chad Reynolds's book of masterful poems about the the 'Wild Boy' is even better than Truffaut's film. Brilliant in concept and accomplishment, Victor in the New World is the debut of a great new poet. This is something extraordinary."
--Bill Knott

Author Reading & Book Release
Thursday, December 20th, 8 pm
with guest readers Mary Walker Graham & Chris Tonelli
M.C. Loc Chanler
& musical guests Ara Vora

The Distillery
516 East 2nd Street
South Boston, MA 02127
(directions here)

We'll provide sparkling libations and snacks, but feel free to BYOB.

Chad Reynolds was born in Oklahoma and lives in Boston. His poems and reviews have appeared in Absent, The Amherst Review, California Quarterly, The Diagram, The Kennesaw Review, Meridian, Open Letters Monthly, Puerto del Sol, RealPoetik, Redivider, Sawbuck, Swink, Verse Daily, and Washington Square. Victor in the New World is his first chapbook.

Mary Walker Graham was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia but now she lives right here, just up the stairs on the 4th and 5th floors. Together with Robert daVies, she founded Rope-a-Dope Press Collaborative in the spring of 2007. Her poems have appeared in 42opus, OCHO, Poetry Magazine, and Poetry Daily.

Chris Tonelli lives in Cambridge, MA where he runs The So and So Series. He has work forthcoming in Cannibal, H_NGM_N, Drunken Boat, and Good Foot , and poems of his will be included in the anthologies The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel – Second Floor and the 2008 Anthology of Younger Poets. His second chapbook, a collaboration with Sarah Bartlett called A Mule-Shaped Cloud, will be available from horse less press in January.

If you just can't wait to get your hands on Victor, show up a week early and help us sew him up:

Wine & Bind
Thursday, December 13th, 6-9 pm

We've got the needles and thread.

Nik is Sick

And we mean that in the really good way.

Nik Gulacsik's broadsides, with poems by Andrea Baker, Jennifer Bartlett, and Reb Livingston. Head over to Manila to get yours.







13"x11" silkscreen + hand-painted details on Rives BFK.

Art Spotting

Tonight at the Distillery Gallery. 6:30-8:30 pm. Directions here.



The Distillery Gallery in South Boston continues its new series of exhibits which feature guest artists along-side Distillery resident artists. Curated by The Distillery's Robert daVies and Femke Lutgerink, Art Spotting makes creative use of the gallery's expansive space and invites the viewer to partake in the exhibit, rather than simply view it.

Art Spotting is an interactive, two dimensional exhibition featuring the works of 40 local artists. Unhinging the usual curatorial patterns, the selection process for this event has one requirement: All work must fit within the limitations of a five inch by five inch frame. Our point: to eliminate, at first glance, the overall individual elements of each artist on hand thus asking the viewer to look a little closer. In fact, Art Spotting persuades the viewer to take on the role as this exhibition's practitioner, and by doing so completing the visual venture first introduced by the various works involved. With this limited requirement, the exhibition makers are investigating how to involve the viewer more actively, to increase their visual parameters, and at the same time, restricting the literal field given to the artists.

Participating artists include: Aimee Belanger, Sadie Bliss, H. Boney, Catherine Bourassa-Hebert, Michael Cardinali, Laurie Carman, Brian Carman, Loc Chanler, Scott Chasse, Corey Corcoran, Tasha Marie Cough, Michael Dacey, Nathan Demant, Alex Feinstein, Elizabeth Geissler, Mary Walker Graham, Ivo Gretener, Nikolaus Gulacsik, John Hyde, Vanessa Irzyk,Dynamo Jenkins, Marketa Klicova, Kathy Kneeland, Maria LeCreta, Jasmine Laietmark, Keith Maddy, Jane D. Marsching, Dan McCole, Denyse Rose Murphy, Chris Nau, Debra Olin, Mike Olnstead, Cheryl Ann Robinson, Debra Bretton Robinson, Amy Ross, Sand T, Matt Aaron Templeton, M. L. Van Nice, Deb Todd Wheeler, & James White.

Speaking of birds.....

Remember, remember

...the 3rd of November?








Robert daVies' broadsides are now for sale on the Manila blog, with poems by Douglas Hahn, Daniel Magers, and Maya Pindyck. Tea stain & polymer plate on Rives BFK.

Open Studios

After a long weekend pulling prints with the public, Rope-a-Dope is reclining on the couch and may never get up. At least not until tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who came out to see our wares and take a turn on the Vandercook!

Trisha Beezup joined us for much of Sunday afternoon and got these great shots below.

Robert daVies helping a visitor pull her first print.
Bob made the broadsides this month and they look awesome.
They'll soon be up on the Manila blog.

Even Milo thinks the Manila Broadsides are tasty.

Mike Dacey of Repeat Press fame.

Big Red & Shiny

Chris Tonelli interviewed over at Big Red & Shiny about the So and So Series and the Manila Broadsides.

Open Studios This Weekend

More info here.

Ms. October

Sadie Bliss' Manila Broadsides are here, and they sure are purty.

You can buy one by clicking here.

et voila

... the September set of Manila broadsides, with silkscreens by Catherine BourassaHebert.

Buy one for yourself, your sister, the girl next door...






Thanks to everyone who helped out this month! Chris, Cat, and Bob did more than their share of printing, slicing, typesetting, and lifting heavy objects. And thanks to Rob Charlton at Goosefish Press for the use of his guillotine. It cuts Rives BFK like butter.

You Be Poncho

Man down.

Man over.

Mary broke her shoulder defending friend-of-Rope-a-Dope L.O.C. from marauding street gangs in Southie. No, really: she fell off the tightrope in Rope-a-Dope's studio. You thought that was a clothesline?

If anyone wants to learn to set type, study one-armed bartending tricks, or wash the dishes, your moment has arrived. Lefty can't lift a coffee cup, much less a case full of lead. Woo-hoo.

By the way, the August broadsides, trippy eye-candy for both sides of your brain, will be available very very soon over at the Manila site. Artist James Weinberg pays homage to the three graces: Dan Boehl, Dan Hoy, and Gina Myers.

Next month: Catherine BourassaHebert takes on Michael Carr, C.S. Carrier, and Lori Shine. Visit the So and So's blog for fight details.

Project Southpaw in DC

Sunday 12th August 2007:
Maria LaCreta and Robert daVies spent a warm and wonderful day working with the Ecuadorian community making notebooks that will be shipped to schools in Ecuador. Our thanks to Dayse Taruselli for escorting us around DC and to Ted Loza for allowing us to stay at his home. Also, a special thanks to Artist Catherine BourassaHebert and Chuck Lewin from PMD Corps for supplying us with their time and materials for the coloring books.

The Manila Broadsides / July Edition

The first set of Manila Broadsides are here! Thanks to artist Anna Trzaska for the beautiful silkscreens, and to Shafer, Cecily, and Ravi for the poems. Ravi-shing. We couldn't be happier.


Cecily Parks, "Self-Portrait Which Makes Use of the Beaufort Scale"

Ravi Shankar, "Fourier and Moore"

Shafer Hall, "Graduation Night"

All broadsides are 11"x13" on Rives BFK. The text is 12-18 pt Caslon, handset in metal type and printed on the Vandercook at Rope-a-Dope Press.

Individual broadsides are $15 a piece and include the cost of shipping.

Buy all three for $30.

Next month: Dan Boehl, Dan Hoy and Gina Myers with broadsides by artist James Weinberg. Visit the So & So's blog for details.

Project South Paw

Project Southpaw enlists American communities in the creation of notebooks to be offered to those without access to their own paper products. Participants learn basic bookbinding skills as they design and bind two notebooks from recycled paper bags. At the close of each workshop, one notebooks is collected from each participant and sent to a community in need.

These notebooks were made by Robert daVies.

The So & So Series at Rope-a-Dope

We are happy to be hosting The So and So Series in our pad. Click below to read the fine print & the list of poets appearing here starting in July. Or visit The So and So's blog for more details.

Shhhhh....

We're hunting wabbits.
















(work in progress)
Sarita Cartonera

Motherlode

We just bought a full run of recut Caslon + the cabinet and some other sundries. Isn't is perty?

Distillery Open Studios

Come check us out during Open Studios. We're in Studio 11; that's on floors 1-5 on the north side of the building. Artists showing in our space include: Helen Granger (painting & drawing), Anna Trzaska (painting & drawing), Robert daVies (painting), Mary Walker Graham (poetry & book arts), and (hopefully) Deanna Devries (jewelry).



















Besides all that you can see the press and how things work around Rope-a-Dope. And maybe even enjoy a few light refreshments.

Directions to the Distillery are here.

Repeat Press

Mike Dacey owns the SP20 we moved into the space a couple weeks ago. These are some of his letterpress & screen-printed posters; for more of Mike's work and details on the pieces below, head over to Repeat Press, where you can still buy one of these beauties.

Women as Black Music

Details from Robert daVies series, "Women as Black Music." Handwritten text is from Marguerite Duras' The Malady of Death and from Mary's poem "Double."