Andaleeb Cartonera’s first Bookmaking Workshop in August 2024. Bookcovers hanging on the line to dry.
It was the summer of 2024, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine entered its tenth month. The UW-Madison Gaza solidarity encampment, which experienced police suppression, had just disbanded. Saylin Alvarez wanted to somehow keep the conversation about Palestine alive and at the forefront in her community.
Saylín Álvarez, founder of Andaleeb Cartonera, a Madison-based independent free press
“How do I keep going when I feel helpless and hopeless after watching atrocity after atrocity that Israel committed in Gaza with total impunity and U.S. support?” she asked herself at the time. “I couldn’t get that question out of my head. It was this sense of impotence and rage that crept into so many of us.”
Alvarez spoke with fellow Madison community members organizing for Palestine, including individuals from Read Palestine and the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. She contacted authors, doctors, and activists who had written about the ongoing horrors in Gaza.
This ultimately led to the creation of Andaleeb Cartonera, a Madison-based independent press that publishes free, handcrafted, cardboard-cover books about Palestine.
“Our project is a tribute to the endurance of the Palestinian people,” Alvarez explains. “In these times of inaction and authoritarianism, we keep talking about Palestine and we refuse to remain silent.”
She continues, “We are just a small group of volunteers without financial resources and under time constraints imposed by our regular jobs, but as long as we can, we continue to make books with the means we have, no matter how small our distribution might be.”
Andaleeb Cartonera takes inspiration from the tradition of Latin American cartoneras, which originated in Argentina in 2003 as a means of producing sustainable, low-cost books for distribution across different communities.
Cartoneras are often grassroots cooperatives and have become an effective anti-establishment method of amplifying marginalized voices, making books affordable and accessible, and sharing stories with creative freedom and intentionality. The word “Andaleeb” means “nightingale” in Arabic, which Alvarez decided on for the name after reading Mahmoud Darwish’s poem Defiance.
Andaleeb Cartonera’s bookmaking workshop at A Room of One’s Own bookstore in Madison
“I’m very familiar with this type of book press,” Alvarez affirms. “In 2010, I co-founded a cartonera in Mozambique, and since then I’ve been using cartonera techniques for different purposes.”
Since its launch about a year ago, Andaleeb Cartonera has published 64 titles about Palestine, including four translated into different languages. Its catalog features articles, essays, speeches, poetry, letters, reports, infographics, and testimonials, covering a wide range of authors, both local and international.
“What We Saw Was Unspeakable” book by Drs. Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa. Book cover art by Mina.
Works by renowned Palestinian writers and activists such as Mosab Abu Toha, Refaat Alareer, and Zeina Azzam, as well as by others like Michael Rosen, Mary T. Bassett, Maia Kobabe, and organizations Visualizing Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, have been published. Works by local Madison figures, including author Christa Bruhn, journalist Esty Dinur, and the group Wisconsin Right to Boycott, are also catalogued.
A few of the latest published titles include Susan Albuhawa’s Remarks at the Oxford Union Debate on the Motion “This House Believes that Israel is an Apartheid State Responsible for Genocide, Mariam Mohammed Al Khateeb’s The War Where Women’s Bodies Lost Their Rights, and Husam Marouf’s Hunger That Defeats Language.
“Everything has been previously published online,” Alvarez mentions. “We ask permission to print the texts in cardboard-cover book format for free distribution.”
“Questions from Palestinian Children in Gaza” by Visualizing Palestine. Book cover art by Leila M.A
Alvarez hosts recurring cardboard bookmaking workshops open to the public twice a month; one is held at independent bookstore A Room Of One’s Own Bookstore, while the other is at Madison Friends Meeting. Andaleeb Cartonera supplies all the materials, including the printed texts of the books themselves. While some may be able to craft a book in an hour or less, many who attend the workshops take their time to engage with the texts.
Alvarez observes, “They read them first, reflect on the message, and then design a meaningful cover that conveys the main idea of the book. I just love seeing the different ways in which people embark on their creative journeys. You don’t need to be an artist to participate.”
Pop-Up by Andaleeb Cartonera exhibit at Madison Central Library
Once finished, participants may either keep the books they make or donate them to Andaleeb Cartonera. The press embraces the duality of archival work and the ephemeral nature of cardboard-cover books. Its titles have been made available in Little Free Libraries around Madison as well as on its website.
“Regular public or school libraries would not easily add our books to their catalogues, and we don’t have our own space to make them available to the public,” Alvarez notes. “Our cartenero books, with their unique, handcrafted covers, stand out in any Little Free Library because we put them with the cover facing out and they catch people’s eye.”
Palestinian writer, poet and scholar, Mosab Abu Toha accepting a gift of books by Andaleeb Cartonera at the Wisconsin Book Festival
Andaleeb Cartonera has exhibited its work at Madison community events, including at a screening of the documentary From Ground Zero: Untold Stories from Gaza at Madison Central Library, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Cultural Night, the Madison Print & Resist ZineFest, and the Palestine Solidarity Fair.
“If I Must Die” by Refaat Alareer, illustrated by Melissa Mendes. Bookcover art by Emily L. Nott
Alvarez is excited to bring Andaleeb Cartonera to the upcoming Celebrating Palestine festival at Milwaukee’s Marcus Performing Arts Center on June 15, organized by the Muslim Women’s Coalition. In terms of immediate goals, Alvarez plans for Andaleeb Cartonera to continue facilitating bookmaking workshops, distributing books around Madison, and donating to spaces that welcome them.
“The Abduction of Mahmoud Khalil” bookcover art by Wadie E. Said
She shares, “When we started in 2024, our purpose was to talk about Palestine in any way we could, and that’s still our main goal. As Greta Thunberg just said before boarding the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, “We have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.” It is our moral and human obligation.”
