How does your work as an anti-racism trainer with social justice organizations inform your current position at MIBA?
Decision making sometimes has a sense of urgency that is a part of white supremacy culture. That urgency has us making decisions that aren’t always inclusive, or else we don’t think about the impact on everyone else, on different kinds of groups. So I slow down to ask, Who does this benefit? Does this harm anyone?
What are your goals as MIBA executive director?
One is to further our outreach with indie publishers, small presses, and those more on the margins of the publishing world. I know that there is a values alignment and real opportunity there. After all, many of them got into this work for the same reasons, so it’s important to figure out how we can support each other. The other thing that’s really important to me is that we further our relationship with and outreach to used bookstores, as well as with bookstores that are farther out west, like in the Dakotas. How can we make it so they can participate? It really is on us to make MIBA accessible to our membership to participate in all kinds of things, to do as much as we can together.
You work remotely from St. Louis, in the southernmost part of the MIBA region. Do you feel any trepidation leading an organization that used to be called the Upper Midwest Booksellers Association?
The only issue that I’ve experienced has been not being able to go pick up our mail at our St. Paul, Minn., office.
