Springtime in Solidarity 🇵🇸✊⛺🇵🇸
As a queer- and trans-led mobile mutual aid initiative, The Nonbinarian Book Bike is pro-liberation, anti-fascist, anti-occupation, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism. We stand in solidarity with the students across the United States who’ve started Popular University for Palestine encampments on their university campuses or occupied and barricaded administrative buildings as they demand divestment, disclosure, and reparations. We stand in solidarity with faculty, staff, family, and community who have banded together to protect students from militarized police sweeps and fought to de-arrest comrades or provide jail support.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Stay focused. Stay alert. Do not look away.
For safe protest resources, including pertinent information about police batons, de-arrest techniques, and lessons from the 1968 student revolution, visit the “Links” Story highlight from Palestine Action US.
Our founder K. Kerimian was interviewed for the Bookseller Oral History Project at the Winter Institute and you can now listen for free!
If you haven’t visited our website, thenonbinarian.gay, you may not know we’re part of one of the queerest domain collectives on the Internet… and our domain host featured the Book Bike on its blog!
We’re also thrilled to announce that K. is one of the recipients of a special spring edition of the James Patterson Bookseller Bonus Program based on their work as an independent bookseller and founder of the Book Bike! They are donating all of this $500 prize to the Nonbinarian, mimicking part of our origin story. K. won this award for the first time in December 2022 and put the entire prize toward making our initiative a reality.
We’re proud to say that several friends of the Book Bike were also awarded this special spring prize, including bookseller Nicole Brinkley and Tubby & Coo’s owner Candice Huber, who pivoted from brick-and-mortar to mobile bookselling last year!
May and June will be especially busy for the Nonbinarian Book Bike team and we are looking for volunteers for upcoming events! Nonbinarian community members will provide free training on an ongoing basis to prepare and support all current and prospective volunteers, including:
Virtual Volunteer Orientation
Virtual Bookselling 101 Training
Virtual & In-Person De-Escalation Training
After training, volunteers who want to take on more responsibility can apply to be ambassadors. Book Bike ambassadors are the faces of the Nonbinarian and will be expected to welcome people to the Book Bike and set up and break down events. In this role, you should be prepared to help recommend books and answer questions about the Nonbinarian.
We are also looking for volunteer cyclists! The physical Book Bike is a manual cargo tricycle and does not steer or ride like a regular bicycle. Volunteer cyclists must be willing to attend an outing to practice cycling before committing to the commute to/from an outing, as they will be primarily responsible for outing execution. (No bike, no event!) They also have to wear a helmet at all times while cycling.
To sign up for May events, fill out the form here.
To sign up for June events, fill out the form here.
If you have questions, please email our volunteer coordinator, Alyssa, at alyssa@thenonbinarian.gay.
It may not yet be beach weather, but it’s definitely park weather! Join us for a special springtime read-in event with our friends from Bookworm Reads! Bring your own picnic/park gear and an LGBTQIA+ book to read. You can come alone, bring friends, meet new people, or just body double with others while you do your own thing!
The Book Bike will be there and we’ll be distributing books. We hope to see you there!
Speaking of beach weather…
Save the Date: Sunday, June 9 from 11 a.m.—3 p.m.
Pride in Bed-Stuy Mutual Aid Fair
Partners to be announced and more details to come! Follow us on Instagram for updates!
Events are back! We’ve loved connecting with community members in Brooklyn and we’re thrilled to have already distributed more than 300 free LGBTQIA+ books! That’s more than half of what we distributed in our entire 2023 season. 😲
Let’s keep it going! Here's where we'll be in May, weather permitting. More events will be added as we get more volunteers!
🚲 Bed-Stuy Pop-Up: Saturday, May 4 from 1 p.m.—3 p.m., Herbert von King Park
🚲 Prospect Park Pop-Up & Read-In: Saturday, May 11 from 12 p.m.—4 p.m., Prospect Park
🚲 Maria Hernandez Park Pop-Up & Partner Event with The Tea Stand: Sunday, May 12 from 12 p.m.—3 p.m., Maria Hernandez Park
🚲 TransGEM Expo: Saturday, May 18 from 12 p.m.—3 p.m., Brooklyn Pride Center in Crown Heights
🚲 Prospect Heights Pop-Up: Sunday, May 19 from 12 p.m.—2 p.m., Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch
🚲 Brower Park Pop-Up: Sunday, May 26 from 12 p.m.—2 p.m., Crown Heights
🚲 Crown Heights Elementary School Visit: Friday, May 31
🚲 The Nonbinarian Book Club: Friday, May 31 at 8 p.m., virtual
Last fall, we partnered with Feminist Press for an author event celebrating the release of None of the Above by Travis Alabanza. Now, it’s our May Book Club pick…
And we’ve once again partnered with Feminist Press to give away two (2) copies to our community! Check out our Instagram for details on how to enter.
The Nonbinarian Book Club is partnered with Bluestockings Cooperative. You can purchase this month's Nonbinarian Book Club book at Bluestockings to support their mission and ours! Click here to order online and use code BOOKBIKE for 15% off at checkout.
The Nonbinarian Book Bike is partnered with the following independent bookstores! Books purchased from our wishlists will be donated directly to the bike for free distribution.
The Nonbinarian Book Bike is also proud to partner with the following organizations for our community reading events! Please check out their mission statements and support them however possible.
🌠 Reading 4 Black Lives Project
Finally, The Nonbinarian Book Bike is partnered with Trans formative Schools, "a progressive education community centering trans joy and social justice." The organization aims to uplift trans children and educators, as well as families "touched by transness," through the implementation of a free afterschool program for ages 9-15. Trans formative Schools' dream is to create a liberal middle school that employs rigorous academics, identity exploration, and more.
All books purchased from this Bookshop wishlist will go directly to Trans formative Schools. The Nonbinarian Book Bike receives a portion of each purchase, which helps us pay for storage, bike maintenance and upkeep, and more. By purchasing from this list, you directly support two trans-led organizations and support indie bookstores through Bookshop.org.
If you'd like to partner with us for an event or sponsorship, please reach out via e-mail! In addition to subscribing to our newsletter, following us on social media, and participating in events, you can also support the Book Bike in the following ways:
📚 Donate a book (or books) to the Book Bike!
📚 Donate funds to help upkeep costs like storage and bike maintenance! You can make a one-time donation or set up a monthly one on Ko-Fi, or you can donate via Venmo.
📚 Buy a book from our wishlist!
📚 Buy a book through our Bookshop storefront!
📚 Support us with a Libro.fm subscription!
📚 Buy Nonbinarian merch!
To get involved in our virtual or physical programming, please DM @nonbinarianbike on IG or email kay@thenonbinarian.gay!
Thank you to the Nonbinarian community for always showing up and showing out! It has been such a joy to meet you at pop-ups, interact with you on social media, and further get to know the Brooklyn community and its various neighborhoods.
We've begun our 2024 distribution season and are thrilled to bring even more books to further reaches of the city. Stay tuned! 📚🚲✨
Want to contribute to the Nonbinarian Newsletter?
If you want to submit something to the newsletter, including events, mutual aid needs, book recs, or ideas you'd like to see us include, please email us at newsletter@thenonbinarian.gay.
Thank you for supporting the Nonbinarian Book Bike! Look for our next newsletter on the 1st of the month. In the meantime, follow us on social media for daily updates.