Collaborate with the Bees on the Coal Poster Print Run

We’ve been hard at work to bring The True Cost of Coal graphic illustration to life on the page. Grounded in the stories and suggestions our allies in Appalachia have shared with us over the last year, we have worked collaboratively to design a poster that can be a multi-tool for inspiring critical reflection and strategic action. We have tried to honor history, respect complexity, be real about our own relationship to the story, ask for lots of feedback, and depict every image - from the biggest dragline to the smallest ant - with care and accuracy.

We are nearing completion and are eager to bring the illustration to the world, distributing thousands of copies both within the coal fields and across the world. Please help us reach this goal by pre-purchasing posters at a highly discounted bulk rate. Your group can get 50-200 (or more!) posters “hot off the presses” and become an integral part of this popular education project by distributing them in your community.

Why collaborate with the bees on a print run?

Printers charge a hefty fee for every “run” of posters (because of the high cost of initial set-up), making it most economical to print posters in bulk. Unfortunately, to do so involves substantial up-front costs, more than we can muster on our own or secure in grants.

As an all-volunteer collective operating on a shoestring budget, we work our wings off to make sure that we squeeze all the potential out of every dollar donated to support this work. If we combine our resources to get this new graphic printed, we can all have posters to distribute for fundraising, organizing, and education. That’s why we’re asking our friends and allies who are committed to justice in Appalachia to help us pull together the final funds needed to make THE TRUE COST OF COAL GRAPHIC CAMPAIGN a reality!

Every day we are losing ground, literally, to mountain-top removal mining, and we need to work together to expose and educate as many people as possible, to help build the movement for grassroots resistance before more mountains are lost. By pre-purchasing a bulk package of posters at just above cost, you are becoming a part of this graphics campaign in two very important ways: you are helping us with the initial cost of printing, and you can become an integral part of the "pollination" process by distributing these posters throughout your community.

How can we use our share of the print run?

So many ways! You can:

• distribute posters as a fundraiser (we suggest a sliding scale donation of free to $10-20 depending on your community’s resources) for your organization and/or others engaged in justice work
  
  
• use the funds generated to bring the bees to your school or town for a presentation or workshop
  
  
• use the posters to fund the purchase of a beehive banner and do the presentation yourself!
  
  
• start a dialogue at your school or with your members (ask us for tools & ideas)
  
  
• donate posters to area high schools or other educational programs
  
  
• talk to your membership or community base for the best ways to use beehive posters to tell stories, catalyze or sustain dialogue, make connections between different struggles, and fight for justice in Appalachia!

Want more info? See more details on our website! >