On Christmas Eve 2021, our healing arts social enterprise publishing house HARP Publishing The People’s Press reached its 15-publication milestone, when the novel Songlines, the last in John Graham-Pole s YAF trilogy, arrived on the doorstep of HARP Central in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia. That’s 5 publications a year since HARP’s first publication in December 2018!
HARP, the little publishing house that could, boasts many social-inclusion milestones in its 3-year history:
Diversity of subject matter: the cancer journey, intergenerational trauma, genocide, Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous rights, residential schools, Disability rights, caring for the caregiver, dance therapy, art therapy, music therapy, Nature therapy, medical humanities, artists-in-residence, and … and …
Diversity of genres: novels, poetry, photography, film, piano composition, spoken word, children’s storybook, memoir, biography.
Diversity of media – print and electronic, Flipbook, CD, DVD
Diversity of authors by age, gender, race, (dis)ability; from first-time published-book authors Kyla Heyming, Cathy Napier, Patricia June Vickers, Dr. Francis Christian, and Stuart Pimsler to established authors John Graham-Pole, Celeste Nazeli Snowber, and Eve Mills Nash.
Diversity of emerging and established artists creating illustrations and cover art, including Antigonish and Nova Scotia-based Adam Tragakis, Cathy Napier, Eva Bertrand Brunelle, Susan Napier, Gillian McCulloch, Dorothy Lander. Anne Camozzi designed the HARP logo. Digital artist Cathy Lin does the book formatting. Webmaster Denise Davies designs and manages the HARP website (www.harppublishing.ca). The artwork of Boston-based Armenian Marsha Nouritza Odabashian, New-Brunswick based Mohawk artist Jody Claus, Minneapolis-based photographer Clark Scott, and West Coast Indigenous author-artist Patricia June Vickers is also featured in the pages of HARP publications. CD Piano composition/accompaniment and Flipbook humming soundtrack by Florida-based musician Cathy DeWitt.
In 2021, HARP partnered with The Curious Cat Tea and Books on Main Street Antigonish to offer its publications to readers in Antigonish and environs. Local woodcraft artist Peter MacLean created the custom-made maple bookcase to present HARP publications.
Also as of 2021, The Circle of Abundance Indigenous Program, Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University: https://coady.stfx.ca/circle-of-abundance; and David Suzuki Foundation (one nature): https://davidsuzuki.org receive 20% of all sales, distributed equally.
Posted by Dorothy Lander: dorothy@tryhealingarts.ca The talented team at This is Marketing (https://www.thisismarketing.ca/) chose a unique colour palette to illuminate
L to R Clockwise: John Graham-Pole aged 2 on Mummy’s knee with sisters Elizabeth, Mary, and Jane, High Bickington, Devon,
Posted by Dorothy Lander Once a month, John Graham-Pole and I showcase the publications of HARP The People’s Press at
Aboriginal Rock Mural Kimberley Region, Western Australia Posted by John Graham-Pole I don’t have answers to any of these questions,
