New Poster: How to Build Community During a Pandemic

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NEWS  RELEASE

April 23, 2020

For Immediate Release
For More Information
Dik Cool, 315-708-5508, Andy Mager, 315-559-7058

New Poster: How to Build Community During a Pandemic

Syracuse, NY: In response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Syracuse Cultural Workers has published an updated version of their best-selling How to Build Community poster, with the title "How to Build Community During a Pandemic." An enlarged version of the poster is displayed in the window at Syracuse Cultural Workers' closed shop at 400 Lodi St., Syracuse (see photo below)

"Like small businesses across the country, we've been highly disrupted by the pandemic and are working hard to keep our staff safe and healthy," notes publisher Dik Cool. "We decided to create this updated poster to support people in our community and across the world who are seeking to maintain health and build social solidarity."  The poster is available on the Syracuse Cultural Workers' website as a free digital download and as a print poster and postcard.  The initial response has been very strong with the image being shared widely on social media.  The digital version has been downloaded nearly 200 times in the four days since it was posted and hundreds of the postcards and posters have been purchased by people across the United States.

The artwork for the original poster was revised for this context, including adding masks onto the faces of the people in the illustration and removing many of them to create appropriate physical distancing. The text which begins, "We’re All In This Together,” and continues with “Take a deep breath and give thanks for the new day,” and “Remember we are part of a large, diverse, global community” features 42 suggestions for building community during the Covid-19 Crisis. They range from the very simple and personal: "Go Outside and Get Moving," to the larger context, "Cherish and Maintain Reduced Pollution." It concludes with the same phrase as the original poster: "Know that no one is silent, though many are not heard. Work to Change This."

The original poster was developed in 1998 and featured artwork by Karen Kerney, the longtime art director of Syracuse Cultural Workers.  Syracuse Cultural Workers has sold tens of thousands of copies of the poster and hundreds of thousands of postcards and other products with the image and text.  After the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, Syracuse Cultural Workers donated ten thousand postcards to firehouses near the attack who distributed them in their communities as a sign of encouragement.

Syracuse Cultural Workers publisher Dik Cool is available for interviews by phone or ZOOM to share this story with your viewers, listeners and readers.

Founded in 1982, Syracuse Cultural Workers is a progressive, feminist publisher committed to peace, sustainability, social justice and multiculturalism. Their calendars, posters, T-shirts, cards and other products are sold across North America through a webstore, catalog and at hundreds of gift stores, museum shops, bookstores, coops and fair trade shops.