![]() ![]() You ended with “We do sincerely hope to open the conversation” and “Expect to hear more from us soon!” We ask, was the conversation opened? And, what was the follow-up to this? We refer to your statement from June 2011, regarding Joe Biel’s involvement in Microcosm. The wide reach of Microcosm’s distribution can be intimidating for any individual to speak out against, so we write this together, in solidarity. We express our concern regarding your support of a perpetrator of abuse. We write as zine distributors, zine-makers, library and infoshop collectives, community accountability supporters, and festival organizers from the DIY (queer, feminist, punk and/or anarcha-) community. Look for us in the green building behind the giant BOOKSTORY sign.We signed on to this statement about Microcosm and Joe Biel after being informed about Joe’s behavior both in Brainscan 21 zine as well as from Cindy Crabb’s statement about no longer publishing her work with Microcosm. We also have a large selection of t-shirts, patches, stickers, and buttons. In our bookstore / open warehouse, we carry reading on topics like bicycling, punk, vegan cooking, mental health, healthy relationships, anarchism, witchcraft, conspiracies, and much more. Get over it."We publish and distribute books and zines that help readers empower themselves to change their lives and the world. But still, at heart, we've got this milk crate strapped to the back of a bike and we're riding wildly across town to hand you the book that might just be the one that saves your life. We're not as drunk or dirty as we used to be. We have a staff, we have relationships in the industry that send our books to places we wouldn't have dreamed we could walk into ourselves. ![]() Now we have contracts instead of handshakes, a warehouse instead of a fanny pack full of zines. We set out to save ourselves from not caring, but out there in the margins we've found communities worth always doing it better for. We've brought our brightly colored books to infoshops, zine fests, media summits, bicycle conferences, parks, street corners, house shows, dirty bars, allnight coffeeshops, art museums, and every corner of the mainstream where we can clear away a little space to set up shop. Microcosm has lived in milk crates, in closets, in a mud room, in a windowless basement, in a church, and under a desk at a major credit card company. on post-consumer papers while we double the industry standard in our number of women authors. ![]() We constantly strive to be recognized for our spirit, creativity, and value. Microcosm focuses on relating the experiences of what it's like to be a marginalized person. The then-distro and record label was started by Joe Biel in his bedroom in 1996 and is now among the oldest independent publishing houses in Portland, OR. Microcosm emphasizes skill-building, showing hidden histories, and fostering creativity through challenging conventional publishing wisdom with books and bookettes about DIY skills, food, bicycling, gender, self-care, and social justice. Portland's most colorful, authentic, and empowering publishing house and distributor, Microcosm Publishing is a vertically integrated publishing house that equips readers to make positive changes in their lives and in the world around them. Mon through Saturday, 11 AM to 7 PM Mission We do this cuz we love it more than anything. ![]()
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