The People’s Paper Co-op

Founded in 2014, The People’s Paper Co-op is a women focused, women powered art and advocacy project at the Village of Arts and Humanities in North Philadelphia. The PPC works with formerly incarcerated women to use a variety of art forms to amplify their stories, dreams, and visions for a more just and free world.

Since 2018, the People’s Paper Co-op has collaborated with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund on their annual Black Mama's Bail Out campaign. Each year, the PPC connects a powerful cohort of women in reentry with artists and advocates to co-create a poster series and corresponding set of exhibitions, parades, press conferences, and events to raise awareness and funds for the campaign. Their posters, prints, and T-shirt sales have raised over $200,000 to free Black mothers and caregivers.

The collaborative work has reached hundreds of thousands of viewers through interactive public art campaigns and a diverse array of exhibitions (from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, City Hall, to detention centers, church basement legal clinics, billboards, and guerrilla wheat paste murals). Their work has been featured by big and small publications, including but not limited to the New York Times, BBC, Refinery29, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and NPR.