"I’m donating copies of all my books for this badass van of book goodness. You should think about sending [Books & Shovels] some books!"
BOOKS & SHOVELS
N!'s Traveling Bookstore
|
April, 2020, & our traveling bookstore, Books & Shovels, has been off & on the road 6 years now. At the time, founder Milo Temperance was based in Erie, PA, & with the help of some close homies, set up shop for the first time at the 2014 NYC Poetry Festival, our first launchpad for a cross-the-US Nostrovia! tour.
Exchanges are made via donations--either $$ or bartering. On Frenchman in New Orleans, someone sawed the air soothed with a violin solo. Austin, someone kicked down some wine & decided to inform us they weren't really Australian, that they were in acting school, & that we're the only heads they've told all day, a secret's worth a book, yeah? Mostly though, it's chaps, zines, & books we're dealing.
Since our first timid tour in 2014, we kept at it, often awkwardly, stubbornly, & with the support of many people who invested kindness & energy into our crew/travels/stock. The support we received over the years is as humbling as using words like humbling allows. The times crisis shed their whimpers for lead roles, we were blessed with (sometimes, aptly surreal & strange) opportunities to rearrange the pieces.
This all breaks down to the facts 1.) Books & Shovels started because we didn't know what else to do with ourselves, & 2.) we love travel & spoken word.
|
2017 Death Rattle Lit Fest, Boise. ID
2015 NYC Poetry Festival
Frenchman St, New Orleans, LA, 2015
|
[ BELOW 4 PARAGRAPHS SLICED MINIMAL & REMOVED ENTIRELY FROM THIS SPACE ]
If an answer is happened upon in the near future, they'll be posted here (along with a Books & Shovels Donations Wishlist) & shared via N!'s Tavern.
Further down this page is a general explanation of How/What We Distribute, the Forms of Payment we accept (got a lil wine? some gas? a joke?), How To Get On Our Shelves, details on Digital $$$ Donations, along with Booking Details & a brief Tour History.
Our Distribution's What-&-How
|
Our shelves prioritize small press publications & contemporary underground lit, that we attempt to pair with more established writers in order to improve circulation access for folks who otherwise wouldn't be able to get their work out physically like this.
Our shelves are an odd, ever-molting cocktail. CDs, records, stickers, small paintings, graffiti, stickers, cassettes, [ whatever we can carry & feels reasonable/ethical to give our limited shelf space to ].
Talking one-on-one with each person who digs thru our shelves is how we enjoy pushing lit. Algorithms jiggle our nerves. The personable & concrete & campfire dances help soothe the anxieties my download manager accidentally embraced as a software update...that, & being more comfortable irl helps reduce the urgency of over-coming social media anxiety ;)
|
2017 Great Lakes, Great Escapes tour
outside an open mic in Monterey, CA, 2015
|
"I only have a buck fifty, a nail, my chapbook, &--A Gas Jug in My trunk! What will that yield me?"
|
We'll take the jug, book, & buck fifty. You can keep the nail. Our ride was cleared of everything with a sharp edge (NOTE: not to rob any passenger of their depression's throb) when we were thrown thru ink-hoops in Eudora, AK. Not looking to get pulled over by a state trooper who might see the nail & interpret that as a direct threat.
EXAMPLES OF INTERESTING TRADES
In Austin, we received showers & wine.
Tucson's given us tobacco for books. San Francisco threw down some cash. Venice Beach offered freestyles & graffiti.
Everything we distribute is donated, dumpstered, purchased independently, or directly bartered for. Everything that leaves our shelves is exchanged for a donation, bartered goods, or has been stolen.
What we're unable to sell we distribute to Little Free Libraries, or to organizations happenstance (& the bare-minimum need for the hallucination of breathing room in a station wagon packed with 4 punky kids & more books than they've collectively read...make of that what you will.)
|
trading a couple books for a show, New Orleans, LA, 2015
New Orleans, LA, 2016
|
Get On Our Shelves!
Put "Lit Donation" in the subject line of an email to
[ NOT CURRENTLY RECEIVING LIT DONATIONS, BUT THANK YOU! ]
Tucson AZ, 2016
|
Arts Bar & Cafe, Santa Cruz CA, 2015
|
The big Bad Monetary Donation & The Dusty Howls live @ How The $'s Used
|
$ donated to Books & Shovels most immediately goes towards gas, or is set aside for vehicle repairs. Depending on our current financial situation, it may also be spent on food, purchasing books (preferably from independent stores / small press), vendor-fees, cigarettes, & occasional motels to shower & rest.
Outside of online-donations, books sales, & bartering, we'll also busk, gas jug, fly signs, or work odd-jobs to compensate living expenses. These practices shift & vary depending on who's in our crew & what our position to create/take opportunities to get where we're headed.
|
Tucson, AZ, 2016
|
If you're able/secure to, we accept monetary donations digitally below :
[ NOT CURRENTLY RECEIVING $$ DONATIONS, BUT THANK YOU! ]
|
|
|
|
Book Books & Shovels
At the moment, we aren't looking to tour! Appreciate you thinking of us, but right now, we need to take time for self-care & intentional rest.
Tour History
2017
- “Flowers & Bullets Benefit Show,” Tucson, AZ
- “Death Rattle Lit Fest,” Nampa, ID
- “Sorry We’re Open,” Casa Baja, Tucson, AZ
- “The Literary Underground: Underground Lit Fest,” Michigan City, IN
- “Great Lakes, Great Escapes Tour,”
- “Poetic Underground, Uptown Arts Bar,” Kansas City, MO
- Minneapolis Open Mics & Cafes
- “Art & Performance Center,” Toledo, OH
- “Legit AF: The Literary Underground,” Michigan City, IN
- “Feed Our Homies: Food Bank Benefit,” PoMoRo, Tucson, AZ
- “Open Mic Night,” Shot In The Dark, Tucson, AZ
- “No Más Muertes Variety Benefit,” Tucson, AZ
2016
- “San Francisco Lit Crawl: Dangerous Thinking,” San Francisco, CA
- “This Lil Lit Fest: Nostrovia! Press,” Denver, CO
- “NYC Poetry Festival,” New York City, NY
- "Tucson Poetry Festival," Tucson, AZ
- “Tucson Tea Party,” The Rat Trap, Tucson, AZ
- “Hip-Hop, Poetry, & Punk,” The Rat Trap, Tucson, AZ
- “Save The Date, d.a. levy-palooza 3,” Unnameable Books, Brooklyn, NY
- “Open Mic Night,” Shot In The Dark, Tucson, AZ
2015
- Austin, Los Angeles, & New Orleans Sidewalks
- Tucson Punk Houses & Art Walks
- Albuquerque Art Galleries
- Rural Texas Open Mic Trail
- “San Francisco Lit Crawl w. The Arts Resistance,” San Francisco, CA
- "Ghost Skullman Attacks!," Somerville, MA
- “NYC Poetry Festival,” New York City, NY
- “Beast Crawl Festival w. Word Performances,” Oakland, CA
- "Tucson Poetry Festival," Tucson, AZ
- “No Mic Open Mic : Round Two,” Shot In The Dark, Tucson, AZ
- “No Mic Open Mic,” Shot In The Dark, Tucson, AZ
- “Mongolian Yurt Open Mic : Gaggle of Hoogalins,” Tucson, AZ
- “Mongolian Yurt Open Mic,” Tucson, AZ
2014
- Denver Cafes & Sidewalks
- "#ThisIsPoetry,” Springfield, IL
- "NYC Poetry Festival,” New York, NY
- "Snoetry Festival,” Guide to Kulchur, Cleveland, OH
...among a long list of odd-ball spaces across the US (we’ve yet to go international, but we’d be grateful to).
Can we hit the road with you?
Nawp.
We wanted to do a residency of sorts, but liability is a creature we've yet to tame intimately enough to make guarantees regarding Books & Shovels. A gig in Somerville, MA, summer 2016 is the only show we've had to bail on, & that's because our ride was spitting gasket burns at a Florida sunset.
Maybe in the future. If we get a bus, or a more stable infrastructure to offer.
What you can do though is follow N!P's Facebook + Twitter (@NostroviaPoetry), & Milo Temperance on Instagram (@TravelingPoetry), to hit the road with us & get clued in quick when our Chapbook Contests & other projects begin accepting submissions <3 This helps us develop our outreach, & gain new opportunities to help us better promote shows & the content on our shelves!
Where are the travelogues That Used To Be Here?
The author of the travelogues published on this page is no longer 18/19/20/21/on the road, & has since archived the narratives to remodel them for digital digestibility, & ask, "What do these stories want to offer? Press promotion? Playful blog posts? Promo the hella talented heads we meet?"
2014 Lawrence, KS
Dig our chapbook contest:
|