July Updates: Bookstore Crawl recap, new magnets, and more
Plus: upcoming events, watch my TV clip, some non-casino-related Atlantic City attractions, an interview with an arts community organizer, 5 local artist/writer opportunities...
Hi there!
Before I get into it, I just wanted to give a little intro to orient all of our new subscribers who have joined us from the New Jersey Bookstore Crawl. Hi! I’m Kerri, I’m the founder of Jersey Collective and I organized the crawl alongside my friend Kristen, and with support from Rutgers University Press (who published my book).
This newsletter comes out once a month, and features a bunch of stuff at the intersection of New Jersey and creativity. Every month, I usually share:
A link roundup of stuff I think is of interest, from events to articles
Updates about Jersey Collective itself—anything we did recently or have coming up, new products, vendor events where I’ll have a table, etc.
A day trip itinerary for a cool place I went recently
A short Q+A with someone local who does something interesting
A list of locally-based opportunities for artists and writers (also useful for learning about upcoming events/art shows!)
A spotlight on a local business that carries some of our goods
I often share book-related stuff in here too, through a New Jersey lens. A few years back, I did a project called Jersey Collective Reads, a series of events with New Jersey authors, with my friend Courtney Preiss, author of the Monmouth County-set novel Welcome Home, Caroline Kline. Those are all archived as videos you can watch or listen to. I later continued that spirit by co-hosting a series of episodes for the New Jersey is the World podcast where we talked to Jersey authors about their Jersey books. I’m really proud of all of those things and hope you’ll check them out!
I really enjoy putting these newsletters together every month, and I hope you’ll find it both a valuable resource and a fun read. Thanks for sticking with me!
-Kerri
I was stoked to read this article titled “The Jersey Devil is Ready for Its Close-Up” by Tobias Carroll, which covers a few recent pieces of media featuring our state’s favorite cryptid, but then I was even more stoked to see an issue of this very newsletter quoted in the piece!
If you missed the most fun piece of local news to come out of New Jersey in the last few weeks, be sure to read this official statement from the Turtleback Zoo about a bear that briefly escaped her enclosure, in full. Her name is Jelly! She is a “geriatric bear”! She got out because someone left her gate unlocked! She took like five steps and decided not to venture any further! Someone please make a children’s book about Jelly’s Big Adventure and thank me in the acknowledgements.
Nork! Photo Fest 2025 is in full swing, with a few events remaining: On 6/22, join a downtown photo walk, “from Military Park to Harriet Tubman Square, into the James Street Commons Historic District and through University Heights before ending the walk with a boozy brunch Sihana Bistro.” And on 6/28, enjoy a day at Military Park fearing “art, music, good energy, and space to dream out loud with your neighbors. Add your piece to the vision board before the final piece is sealed and framed.”
This summer, participate in History Pinned: visit the five participating historical sites and get an artist-designed button at each, and then enter to win a prize once you’ve visited all five. I don’t personally need to be bribed to visit a historic site or museum, but I will happily take any related trinket they want to offer me.
I enjoyed looking at these plein air paintings of Red Bank, made during “Paint Red Bank,” a single day plein air painting event organized by Art Alliance. I grew up in the area and I’ve spent a lot of time there, and there’s just something so cool about seeing familiar places through someone else’s artistic lens.
I was recently alerted to the existence of Eighty-Six’d, a print magazine that aims to “shed light on the people and businesses that make the Montclair area unique, from local artists to chefs, to iconic dive bars and up-and-coming artisans.” I haven’t seen it out in the world yet but am interested to check out a copy.
Sunday’s “Hike & Write” event at Hacklebarney Park, hosted by The Sanctuary, sounds like a lot of fun!
There’s an officially licensed art exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jaws, coming to Red Bank this summer. It will feature original art from the film, as well as work inspired by it.
New Jersey Bookstore Crawl recap
This was easily the most popular, fastest-moving thing I’ve ever organized. It was overwhelming, but in a good way!
I made a post with all of this info, too, but some numbers: easily over 1,000 people participated in the crawl! We had 781 people log their crawls, and I assume a sizable number of people didn’t take the time to fill out the log, or were accompanying a more enthusiastic friend. Of the people who did log their crawls, they came from 339 different zip codes, and five states (NY and PA, of course, but also VA and OH). The zip code with the most participants was Randolph—I don’t know if there was some kind of book club that crawled together? Most people visited between three and five stores, with a lot of people making it to one or two or six or seven, also. And three people reported visiting twenty.
The tangible impact on the bookstores was amazing, with stores letting me know things like: “I haven’t had this many people in my store in one day in years,” multiple comparisons to holiday season sales figures, and just how much they enjoyed meeting so many excited new customers. There was also a tangible impact on other area businesses and restaurants, with many crawlers letting me know they brought their dollars to neighboring shops and eateries, too.
The pop-up I did on Sunday morning with Cozz Coffee was a really fun addition to the weekend, too. I had such a great time meeting everyone who came out for that!
I’m so glad that most of the participants understood that this was the whole point: to, for one weekend, come together to intentionally patronize out local literary economy. I’m still working my way through the participant feedback, but it’s overwhelmingly positive, and many of the suggestions for things to do next year are things I had wanted to do this year but just got overwhelmed by how big the event was getting and had to reign it in. All that is to say: I’m so glad the people who got it found this event and were the ones to participate in it.
I’m working on a post for Instagram that will cover some ways you can keep the spirit of the crawl alive going forward, but here is a quick distillation:
Join your library’s summer reading program.
Keep in touch with stores you visited on social media or sign up for their newsletters so you can find out about special events and offerings all year long.
Use the map and guide for future reference, or to plan a DIY/informal crawl with your friends to visit some of the stores you didn’t visit during the crawl.
This summer’s Philly Bookstore Crawl will take place on August 23, so save the date and make a plan to visit some of their 40+ participating shops!1
Find a local book club or Silent Book Club chapter, and carve out time to read while making new friends who also love reading. (If you are in or organize anything, feel free to share the info in the comments!)
Mark your calendar for Independent Bookstore Day, always held on the last Saturday in April!
(And yes, we will do this again next year! With even more stores! I polled this year’s participating stores and most of them liked our early June timeframe, so we will likely stick with that again for next year, but of course—you’ll hear it here first, and on Instagram, when we have dates to announce!)
New product drop: magnets!
We’ve produced our first new product of 2025: two rubber souvenir magnets, designed by Kasey of Rad Co. (who also designed these stickers)! These are the kind of souvenir magnets I’ve wished for years I could buy at turnpike rest stops.
But since I could never find well-designed, vintage-style magnets for the kind of hyper-specific New Jersey landmarks I wanted…you know how this story goes. Cut to me researching where to get molded rubber magnets made and finding the website for the only remaining factory in the United States that still produces them this way. (Watch a very cool video of their manufacturing process here!)
Enter Kasey, who can truly design anything, and here we are. She designed the old-school souvenir magnets of my dreams—and, hopefully, yours? Grab yours here!
Upcoming events
Princeton Zine Fest at the Princeton Public Library
Saturday, June 21 from 12:00 - 5:00 PM
65 Witherspoon St, Princeton, NJ
Montclair Flea at Lackawanna Station
Saturday & Sunday June 28 & 29 from 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
292 Bloomfield Ave, Montclair, NJ
New Jersey Fan Club book event at Howling Basset Books
Saturday, August 2 at 5:00 PM
45 N Main St, Lambertville, NJ
RSVP here! A few contributors may be joining me; more info soon!
Can’t make it to an event? Shop our online souvenir shop!
Sticker Club
Our book-themed series is officially SOLD OUT! Thank you to everyone who came to the pop-up we did during the bookstore crawl for cleaning us out! I’ll miss the series, but I know all of those stickers went to very good homes.
Our next pop-ups will feature our Series 3 designs!
Recent press
Thanks again to Lisa Marie Falbo and her production team for having me on Your New Jersey, a show that airs on the On New Jersey network, to talk about the bookstore crawl! You can watch the video here:
The Noyes Art Garage
Location: Atlantic City, NJ
A bunch of years ago, my friend Miko introduced me to the Noyes Arts Garage, which is run by Stockton University, and I always make a point to visit whenever I’m in Atlantic City. The space is inside a literal parking garage, right off of the Atlantic City Expressway2, and it’s a great place to spend some time. Inside, you’ll find a mix of gallery spaces, studio spaces, retail shops, and a location of the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey. When I visited a few weeks ago on a rainy Saturday afternoon, I enjoyed exploring the current temporary exhibits, saw an artist working on a painting, and spent enough in both the museum store and garage retail shop to have my parking validated. They also do events, so keep an eye on their calendar!
A short list of other things to do nearby
Eat: Tony’s Baltimore Grill (don’t skip dessert—the bread pudding is really good), Back Bay Ale House, Maria's Luncheonette
Drink: The Seed: a Living Beer Project (I don’t drink beer, but I love the atmosphere, and the beer drinkers I know all really like their beer), Hayday Coffee (I also don’t drink coffee, but everyone I was with liked theirs, and the hot chocolate was very good, plus they host mixers for creatives and other events)
Left to right: Tony's Baltimore Grill, The Seed, Hayday After coffee, we went directly next door to Side Pony Print Shop, where I bought a bunch of vintage clothes on a whim and enjoyed seeing their original work, too!
Let’s hear from an interesting New Jerseyan! Interview has been lightly edited for space.
This month, I talked to Kate Maldjian, the organizer of Sketch Book Club Red Bank. She hosts regular meetups at Five Dimes Brewery where she provides a theme and art supplies, and participants show up with sketch books, ready to create. Check their Instagram for meeting information,
There’s something about the structure of your events that just feels so smart to me. People can work independently without the pressure to talk or “network,” but you still create the opportunity for connection. It reminds me of how Silent Book Clubs work—a group of people come together with a shared interest and do their own thing, but together. Why was this something you wanted to bring to your community?
Sketching has always been a way for me to keep my hands busy and unwind—it helps me temporarily unplug from whatever the day has brought. As life got busier, I noticed I was carving out less and less time for it, and I had a feeling I wasn’t alone. That’s what inspired me to start this club: to create a space that gently holds us accountable to making time for ourselves.
It was important to me that the environment feel low-pressure and welcoming. There are no lessons, no expectations—just a chance to show up and create at your own pace, in your own way. The same goes for the social aspect: if you feel like chatting, great! If you’d rather quietly focus on your art, also great! Most people end up doing a bit of both.
One of my favorite parts is walking around during our meetups, seeing what everyone’s working on, meeting new people, and reconnecting with returning members. I love getting to witness how a simple shared space can foster both creativity and quiet connection.
What do you hope people will take away from your events when it comes to thinking about making time for creativity and play as an adult?
I hope people walk away feeling good—not because of what ended up on the page, but because they carved out time for themselves to create something that wouldn’t have existed otherwise. It’s less about the outcome and more about honoring the process. As adults, it’s easy to deprioritize creativity and play, but those moments of expression, however small, are powerful acts of self-care.
I think having themes is great, because it gives people, especially reluctant or burnt-out people, a jumping off point. How do you come up with them?
They will sometimes have to do with the month that we are hosting it. For example, March explored the theme of “Luck.” There are also times I get suggestions from club members, like June’s theme of “Mushrooms.” Other times, something completely random pops into my head that I think would make for a fun theme.
How is your partnership with Five Dimes?
The entire staff at Five Dimes has been supportive of Sketch Club since day one! I proposed the idea of twice monthly meetings hosted at their brewery back in November 2024 and haven’t looked back. The bar is a perfect match, because it’s always looking for ways to integrate into the community and be a meeting place for all kinds of people. It doesn’t hurt that I also love all their beers!
What is your relationship to art like?
My relationship with art is…kind of all-encompassing. I work full time as an Associate Creative Director at an ad agency in NYC and have worked in the art field for the past 10 years. Well before that though, I was constantly doodling on placemats or any surface I could find. I always have a sketchbook handy, and find that drawing just for fun or relaxation is integral to my daily life.
Highlighting our locally-based independent retailer partners who carry our products!
The Bunkhouse
Location: Beach Haven, NJ
If you find yourself in LBI, be sure to swing by The Bunkhouse, which describes itself as “a future nostalgia shop,” that sells original art and apparel, plus other goods and vintage. They have a bunch of our new magnets in stock, as well as some of our New Jersey pennant stickers! I’m looking forward to visiting their very dreamy space next time I’m in the area.
The New Jersey Conservation Foundation has a call for art “in a variety of styles representing artists from around the state” to use on bird cards “to highlight the connection between conservation and art.” Email blynch@njconservation.org for more info and to submit. Rolling deadline, but they are hoping to print the first set by the fall.
The Monmouth Museum invites artists to submit work that “creatively reflects upon themes related to bias, perception, inclusion, and the pursuit of empathy and equity” to accompany work they will be hosting from a traveling Smithsonian exhibition called The Bias Inside Us. Deadline: 6/30.
Bury Me in NJ is launching a quarterly print publication that will “reflect the spirit of South Jersey—especially the Pine Barrens region—while exploring broader, universal themes: how we build community, how we care for one another, and how those practices can extend beyond where we live.” They are seeking “first-person narratives, practical resources and community-focused information, poetry, art, photography, political cartoons and creative commentary” from primarily writers and artists from New Jersey, particularly South Jersey. Deadline: 7/24.
Gallery 14C is seeking submissions for a group show called “Under the Influence,” featuring art inspired by other art. Deadline: 8/18.
Union Hall Arts is seeking work for “PROTEST!”, a group show “where cardboard & markers become your tools of rebellion.” They welcome work from “artists, first-timers, and everyone in between,” made from anything as long as it’s 22” x 28” or smaller and lightweight and ready to hang. Deadline: 9/1.
As a reminder, I compile these local opportunities from sources including social media. Unless explicitly stated, I am not involved in organizing these events and cannot answer questions about them! Please click through the links to find answers to your questions or for points of contact.
Feel free to send me anything you’re a part of or that you see, either via email (you can reply to this) or on Instagram! I prioritize in-state opportunities that don’t charge submission fees, or that charge nominal fees or take fair commissions and directly support local arts & culture organizations.
My picks if I could only hit up a few: Partner & Sons, The Head & The Hand, and Head House!
Thanks so much for mentioning our new pub, and for the awesome roundup of other upcoming events!