Who are the VALLEYFOLK?

September 11, 2020

The Valleyfolk are committed young people who learn through books. Yes, they learn in the traditional academic way with textbooks at Western Michigan University, but they also learn through the experience of making a book: conceiving the idea for a poetry collection and then creating a book from start to finish, while also facing real challenges and constraints along the way. This is their story.

Camille Day, Hana Holmgren, and Rozlin Opolka, former KBAC interns and participants in the Book Arts in Italy study abroad trip, worked in our studio to produce a beautiful 48-page handmade book titled VALLEYFOLK. It consists of eleven poems by young local writers (more Valleyfolk!) with original linocut prints. As you might imagine, their original, ambitious prototype design was developed and modified to a more realistic, get-it-done-in-12-months version that is now ready for distribution. It includes handmade paper for the cover and inserts, many beautiful original linocut prints including a full-page aerial view of Kalamazoo VALLEY, and a fold-out page for one extra-long poem. They set the poems by hand using 12-point Bembo movable lead type, then printed the text and images on a Vandercook press. Finally, they hand-bound the edition into 35 beautiful, labor-of-love, books.

Along the way, they had fun, worked hard, and spent long evenings and early mornings in the studio. They worked as a team and independently. Even in this time of seemingly endless Covid uncertainty, they met all the deadlines we set for them throughout the year. Having said that, they might have finished earlier if they had chosen to print the very last poem on the evening of March 16, as planned, rather than going to get groceries. As it turned out, the lengthy pandemic lock down began the very next day and getting food, we have to agree, was the smarter choice!

VALLEYFOLK was funded by a Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, New Leaders Grant. It provided each student with a small stipend, paid for the materials, and offered an amazing learning experience that concludes on Saturday, September 19 at 6:00 with a reading by the poets on a Zoom call. Please join and support them by visiting here for a link to the reading. The hard cover and soft cover books are available for purchase on the KBAC website. 

Most importantly, this entire experience exceeded all the expectations of the KBAC, the MCACA, and the Valleyfolk! We are very proud of this book and hope it will be the first of many published by talented students. 

Jeff, Katie and Lorrie

Previous Blog