Tuleburg Press Celebrates #GivingTuesday and pledges to use the funds raised to support our downtown book arts center, The Write Place!

This #GivingTuesday, Tuleburg Press will celebrate YOUR giving by using funds raised to run The Write Place: paying our teachers, giving students scholarships, and putting on free classes. #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities and organizations to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide. Following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this year’s #GivingTuesday will take place on November 27th and will kick off the giving season by inspiring people to collaborate and give back.

The history of Tuleburg Press is an exciting tale full of triumphs. We began with a novel about the exploitation of black athletes by a fictional CSU and six books later, launched a full-color book of haiku with photography by Lodi local resident Barron Sudderth. Our publications are as cultured and varied as Stockton itself. We’ve published the history of the Philomathean Club, A Lady’s Place, by Mary Jo Gohlke and The Great Chinese New Year’s Race and Other Children’s Plays by Heather Rule.

We have worked hard to create a center in Stockton where people of all ages can come together to learn book arts and to appreciate literacy. In March, 2017, Tuleburg Press signed a lease with Cort Companies to open The Write Place on the ground floor of Cort Tower. Since then more than 500 people have taken classes here or come to our speaker series or attended writing workshops. This year we hosted Derek Moore, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who was part of the team that covered the Sonoma fires last year, and Dan Gioia, California’s Poet Laureate.

The Write Place reaches out to many diverse communities. We hosted youth and adults from the Kelly’s Angels Foundation; the Central United Methodist Church; The ARC, for People with Developmental Disabilities; the Children’s Home of Stockton; and STAND. We held field trips for Spanos and Kohl elementary schools. We also provide an office and a home, rent-free to With Our Words, Stockton’s youth poetry collective, founded by Stockton’s Poet Laureate Tama Brisbane.

We continue to take part in Stockton’s artistic endeavors. This past year Tuleburg Press has participated in ArtSplash, El Concilio’s 50th Anniversary Cinco de Mayo Festival, in every Stockmarket, in an Eleanor Project at The Haggin Museum, Family Day at the Park, and held a teambuilding papermaking workshop with the Highwater Brewing Company staff!

In October alone, we had four field trips for San Joaquin County Office of Education One Schools. We’re went all out for Stockton Arts Week, collaborating with the Mexican Heritage Center on its Dia De Los Muertos Festival and offering a day-long printing workshop and tour of the unique Utility Covers downtown, created by artist Molly Toberer and installed in 2004. On October 13, we put on Stockton’s first ZINE FEST!, a gathering downtown of young and old, showcasing their writing and art talents with their own “magazines.”

When it comes to reaching struggling Stocktonians, of the over 500 participant visits to The Write Place since its opening, more than 90% are low income and 50% of those are very low income. That’s the federal mandate we accepted from the City of Stockton to secure Community Development Block Grants Funds.

Our mission is to find, mentor, encourage, and publish writers of all ages and genres who write about our Valley experiences is a reality because of you.

Founded in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y – a community and cultural center in New York City − #GivingTuesday inspired millions of people to give back and support the causes they believe in. Over $300 million was raised online to benefit a tremendously broad range of organizations, and much more was given in volunteer hours, donations of food and clothing, and acts of kindness. “We are incredibly inspired by the way the #GivingTuesday community has embraced this concept for a worldwide movement,” said Henry Timms, founder of #GivingTuesday and Executive Director of 92Y. “As we prepare for November 27, we’re energized and encouraged by the community’s generosity. The levels of creativity, effort and the quality of the new ideas people have contributed and shared are phenomenal.”

Those who are interested in joining Tuleburg Press’ #GivingTuesday initiative can visit tuleburgpress.com. For more details about the #GivingTuesday movement, visit the #GivingTuesday website.