We Rise (Together): Taking and Making Space for BIPOC Book Arts Creatives, Cultures, and Histories

Tia Blassingame is Printer in Residence at the Bibliographical Press, Bodleian Libraries, during October 2023.

At this talk, Tia Blassingame will introduce her work leading the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective (aka Book/Print Collective) and will share methods for supporting and empowering BIPOC book and print artists so they can thrive in the book arts field and beyond. She will also discuss her educational work that centres Black American artists working in the book form and her curatorial work challenging the exclusion and erasure of Global Majority traditions and artistry in hand papermaking. 

Founded in 2019, the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective brings Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) book artists, papermakers, curators, letterpress printers, printmakers into conversation and collaboration with scholars of BIPOC Book History and Print Culture to build community, support systems.

Employing book arts and printmaking techniques, Tia Blassingame reconstructs charged images and histories for a nuanced discussion on issues of race and racism. Blassingame is an Associate Professor of Book Arts at Scripps College, and is the Director of Scripps College Press, a student-run, experimental bookbinding and letterpress laboratory.