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."

Impressed.

Over the weekend we moved a Vandercook SP20 into the studio. It is f*ing beautiful.















Thanks to Loc, Sadie, & Cat (and any other elves who magically moved this 1500 pound thing while I was at work and Robert was in NYC), and especially Mike, who owns it. Love, love, love.

New books!

Pictures of Mary's recent books: the Paul Valery cover is made from a recycled American Poetry Review (who doesn't like cutting up that rag?). And "Tragedy" is the first of a series of blank books based on a poem titled "Double."

8x6", 24 pages (blank); hardcover with coptic binding.







Detail of cover. Lama li (handmade Nepalese paper) + handcut and engraved insulating tape.



Detail of Valery cover. 6 1/2 x 8 1/4", 20 pages (blank), hardcover Japanese stab binding. Recycled American Poetry Review+ newsprint.

Ali Bombaye

If you're wondering what the significance of "rope-a-dope" is, check out Wikipedia's explanation (there's a link in the side-bar). You can also watch this excerpt from When We Were Kings on You Tube, or better yet, rent the whole thing.




DIY and indie publishing are a sort of rope-a-dope technique, non?

Logo

Rope-a-dope logo by Robert daVies. Love it.