Description
“The most vital right is the right to love and be loved.”
— Emma Goldman
This oversized postcard is a reproduction (offset printed, NOT letterpress) of our Love Nest broadside, created in support of families of all shapes, sizes and stripes. The large letterpress poster is now sold out, but this postcard faithfully reproduces the hand-lettered typography and hand-drawn illustrations of the original.
Our home state of Washington became the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage, but opponents forced a voter referendum to decide the issue on the 2012 ballot. To help sort through the anarchy of dissenting opinions and angry words around us, we turned to the unlikely Goldman—an anarchist herself. It turns out that despite her outlandish creeds and fierce opinions, Emma’s quote cuts straight to the heart of the matter.
To pay homage to Emma’s words, we raised our grandmothers’ Pyrex glasses and turned to folk art for inspiration. Love Nest is dominated by a lively brood of nesting matryoshka dolls. Each individual is different, but together they complete the picture of a nurtured, multicolor family. Roosters, hens and chicks complete the flock waiting for the next generation to hatch as Emma’s words stitch the family together.
You can find all available postcard designs in the postcards section of the shop.
Postcard size: 5 x 8 inches
PLEASE NOTE: these oversized postcards require extra postage for mailing.
PAPER FINISH: this postcard is made from paper with a smooth, eggshell finish. If you write on it, we recommend using either a ballpoint pen or some form of permanent, smear-proof ink.
Colophon reads:
Emma Goldman (1869 – 1940) was born in Kovno, part of the Russian Empire (now Lithuania). She moved to New York in 1885 to live with relatives, supporting herself with factory work. In the following year, news of the Chicago Haymarket riot changed Goldman’s life. In honor of the riot victims and the labor movement, she determined to “dedicate myself to the memory of my martyred comrades, to make their cause my own.” She joined Alexander Berkman—another Russian immigrant—in spreading her vision of an ideal society, based on the anarchist principle of absolute freedom. Goldman founded the political and literary journal “Mother Earth,” and toured the country speaking about anarchism, birth control and economic freedom for women. She was arrested numerous times over her unconventional opinions, accused of disseminating illegal information and inciting to riot.
At a time when even her fellow anarchists questioned her support of homosexuality, Goldman spoke out: “It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding … and is so crassly indifferent to the various gradations and variations of gender.” She openly opposed U.S. entry into WWI, was jailed once more for obstruction of the draft, and finally deported back to Russia under the 1918 Alien Act. She spent the rest of her life in exile, supporting anarchist causes abroad. After her death, Goldman’s body was repatriated and buried in Chicago—near the Haymarket anarchists that had so inspired her.
Illustrated by Chandler O’Leary and printed by Jessica Spring, who with Goldman “demand freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love and freedom in motherhood.”
————————————
This original artwork is copyright Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring 2012. Copyright is not transferable with the sale of this postcard. The buyer is not entitled to reproduction rights.
WA state residents are subject to sales tax.
This card will ship flat in a protective mailer, via the United States Postal Service.