My name is Gold Carson Sánchez, I'm a former independent bookstore employee, current creative writing instructor, forever poet, and musician most of the time. Drawing from do-it-yourself ethics and practices of mutual aid, my project, Stelton Distro @steltondistro, will host writing and artmaking workshops, live shows, and author events; sell zines and books; and serve as a meeting space for local aligned organizations in Jersey City. With a focus on poetry, music, and the history and future of social movements, the new and used book selection will reflect our interest in experimental creative processes. Stelton will open in September 2025. All funds raised will help support operating expenses like rent, utilities, insurance, and our initial inventory. Help make this black queer-owned community space possible by becoming a member!

Stelton will offer the community poetry workshops, zinemaking workshops, and political education sessions. I very much want you to buy our zines and books, but Stelton Distro will be a third space where folks are not required to spend money in order to take up space. We will stock books on prison abolition, black liberation, feminism, trans liberation, disability justice, Palestine, and literature in translation, along with local NJ history and culture. Importantly, we want to distro your stuff! You will be able to easily pitch us your zine or book to stock in the store.

My experience with groundcover, the music and poetry performance series that I curate has led me to pursue Stelton. Events like groundcover bring people together despite the grimness, fight against the imposed routine of joyless work, and make my own life worth living. This space will be set up to be easily converted for a live performance, whether it's a punk show, singer-songwriters, or a poet. We want to showcase your work at these shows! I'm also part of Jersey City Food Not Bombs, an org that cooks and serves a hot meal twice a week for dozens of people by the Journal Square PATH station. Food Not Bombs needs a physical home for meetings and supplies. Stelton Distro will be the perfect space to continue with our (vastly logistically challenging) mutual aid project and allow us to scale up.

Stelton Distro takes its name from the Ferrer Modern School at Stelton, an early twentieth century educational experiment in New Jersey founded by a group of utopian anarchists who imagined, prefigured, then tried to build the world they wanted. Children at Stelton studied (or didn't study) what they wanted, away from the strict confines of traditional schooling. And "Distro" is punk for "distribution" of course!

Support this project today and follow us on Instagram! Looking forward to seeing you at Stelton Distro in JC!