Know Your City, the organization formerly known as The Dill Pickle Club, is planning to construct a bike-powered mobile bookstore and information kiosk for Old Town Portland. It will be located in the pedestrian area of SW Ankeny Alley, right next to Voodoo Doughnuts: the perfect place to target tourists and sell tickets to KYC events. Get some local knowledge with your iconic sugar bombs! To fund this project, KYC is running a Kickstarter campaign set to end on Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 28). As of writing this post, KYC was nearly halfway to its goal of $10,000. The way Kickstarter works is all or nothing; either an assortment of supporters pledge the full $10,000 or the entire project falls through.

To give the Kickstarter campaign an extra fuel injection, KYC held a fundraising party, “A Night in the Alley,” on November 12. Several of the bars and restaurants in Ankeny Alley participated with extended happy hours and specials, including a one-night-only Know Your City doughnut from Voodoo.

Ooligan Press has a special interest in seeing this kiosk built. Several of our titles delve into Oregon’s culture and history and are stocked by Know Your City, including Brew to Bikes: Portland’s Artisan Economy,by Charles Heying. Support for the KYC kiosk is support for Ooligan and our authors.

Know Your City had a successful publishing venture of their own with the Oregon History Comics, a colorful box set of minicomics written by Sarah Mirk and illustrated by local comic artists. Soon KYC will launch Comics For Change! Illustrated Stories From Oregon’s Front Lines, a series of ten minicomics about social activism celebrating Oregon’s outspoken heralds of justice. The release party for Comics for Change is scheduled for the evening of December 12 at Darcelle XV Showplace. Darcelle (Walter Cole) is one of the heroes featured in Comics for Change.