I am a poster screen printer and for many years I've used my resources to design and screen print posters to give away at marches/protests. My hope is people will like them enough to keep and put on their walls as a reminder as to why they were there that day. In 2020, shortly after George Floyd was murdered, a bunch of us handed out 1,000's of prints at protests over several weeks.

But in the middle of the night (Tuesday, June 2) I woke up with the idea that the designs should go on shirts as then people could be wearing the messages out in public to support the community. That same morning I scrambled to get information on the website, posted on social media letting people know they could walk up, hand me a shirt, and I would print them a shirt for free. Exactly 2 people showed up...

I wasn't too discouraged as I believed in the idea. So I took the photo of the 2 that showed up and scheduled another event for the the upcoming Saturday and promoted all week. 60+ people showed up and we printed around 100 shirts. It gave me hope and I called the events LiberTees and hosted twice a month leading up to the 2020 election. It continued once a month for the next 2 years including a design that went viral in 2022 and raised $14,500 to support abortion rights.

2023 was less frequent with only 2 events, so for 2024 I committed to refocusing and relaunched in January and February. But in March a new studio opportunity came and Ink Lounge relocated a few miles south to Englewood. I love the new studio for so many reasons including it's only 12 blocks from home, but It is smaller requiring me to reconsider how to go about running the events if at all. The mission was also renamed CommuniTees and along with studio events, I reached out to community focused organizations to host the printing at their location. We printed 100+ shirts for PRIDE, 400+ election shirts, and sold 50+ yard signs where 100% of the sales ($1,000) was donated to a local youth nonprofit.

2025 update: going back to calling it LiberTees to protest the attack on our constitutional rights including Freedom of Speech. I've also reach out to  local groups organizing protests and the shirts will be designed to specifically support their events and messaging.

Many thanks for your support and hope to see you at an upcoming event. Please share and follow along on Instagram.

#privilegewithpurpose