About
Selected work
C.V.
Flower Press
In 2019, I formed Flower Press, an equitable publishing practice centering historically marginalized authors and practitioners. Flower Press began as a radical experiment, taking as its premise the supposition that given the opportunity, artists and publishers can exist in a mutually sustaining and beneficial relationship. This is evidenced by the press’ provision of no-cost services, equitable cost and profit-sharing practices, and championing of emerging artists.
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Leveraging my experience with two-sided marketplaces, I started the press as a distribution model, bringing together self-published works from many friends under one unified storefront. This created opportunities both for authors to gain greater positional context for their work and for audiences to discover a greater diversity of work across subject matter, format, and genre.Within months, the demand for an equitable publisher became clear, and I began receiving requests to publish original titles. In May 2019, I published Flower Press’ first title, Radical Self-Care for Black Women by Katelyn Rivas. Quickly after, the press grew into an end-to-end service, from manuscript review, selection, and editing to design, production, and marketing to distribution and wholesale. Since then, I have published nearly 40 original titles and worked with over 100 artists, authors, and practitioners.
As Flower Press’ sole steward, I undertake all activities for the press, including all publishing activities, business management, planning, and strategy.
Details
Care Manual by Kamra Hakim
A debut publication for Activation Residency founder kamra sadia hakim, Care Manual explores praxis and theory for giving and receiving care in community across nine chapters.
Care Manual meshes source references with theories lived, pulling up fixed notions of care, consent, pleasure, and harm from their roots. Care Manual uses its own friction to soften rigid language and ideas into malleable objects and tools through a Black Trans Creator subjectivity.
Hakim’s well-defined lexicon serves as source code for the text, realized on the page as culturally specific, accessible, and open source language meant to create shared context for readers and practitioners alike.
Care Manual has been reprinted for six runs in a variety of materials, colorways, and printing techniques, responding, moving, and evolving with its context, much as the material itself would have us do.
Ancestral Healing Tarot Deck by Care Fushi Bekene
Inspired by Pamela Colman Smith’s iconic Rider-Waite tarot deck, transformative justice practitioner Care Fushi Bekene created the Ancestral Healing Tarot Deck through the lens of generational healing. The deck includes original collages and illustrations from the artist, depicting Black and trans elders, icons, and symbols.
The Ancestral Healing Tarot encourages introspection, investigation, and curiosity. Traditional tarot suits are here reimagined as elements, inspiring a sense of somatic awareness and connection.
Care approached me to bring this project to life after working hard on their own to reach a prototype phase. I agreed to take on the project and produce an initial run of the tarot deck - a timely, difficult, and risky project that ultimately proved very successful, resulting in a sold out run. I developed a strategic approach to the project, created and managed a pre-order period, identified a production partner, managed all aspects of production, communicated with wholesale partners, and fulfilled all orders.
Boundaries & Consent by Mia Schachter
From Consent Wizardry creator Mia Schachter comes the first print edition of their workbook, Boundaries & Consent, designed with an emphasis on interpersonal relationships and sex.
Boundaries & Consent is meant to help readers get in touch with their boundaries. Using three consent frameworks, readers integrate these structures into their thinking so they can begin to practice consent intuitively and easily. Practice dialogues let the reader sharpen their consent tools. There's space for reflection and journaling, as well.
Schachter’s deft interweaving of practical tools and frameworks with an approachable voice and encouragement to move at an individual pace help the reader to feel invited to participate on their terms.
Boundaries & Consent features collaborative design between myself and author, Mia Schachter. Our priority was to get the workbook into hands as quickly as possible. I designed a production process that made this possible, quickly and carefully translating the workbook from the screen to the page.
Flower Press Brand
I am responsible for all aspects of Flower Press’ brand, from the creation of the website, logo, wordmark, and merchandise to social strategy, marketing, and communications.
See (so, so, so much) more at flowerflowerpress.press.