“You Have Not Yet Been Defeated”

Join Molly, Sanaa Seif, Rosaline Elbay, and Sharif Abdel Kouddous for a reading of “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated” by Alaa Abd el-Fattah at McNally Jackson Seaport on April 25th.

RSVP Here

“A fiercely independent thinker who fuses politics and technology in powerful prose, an activist whose ideas represent a global generation which has only known struggle against a failing system, a public intellectual with the rare courage to offer personal, painful honesty, Alaa’s written voice came to symbolize much of what was fresh, inspiring and revolutionary about the uprisings that have defined the last decade”

Molly to illustrate “Tiger Slayer” by Ruby Lal

LATimes Book Prize Finalist and professor of South Asian history at Emory University Ruby Lal’s TIGER SLAYER, a young reader’s edition of the author’s biography of Mughal empress Nur Jahan, often considered the Cleopatra of South Asia, is to be illustrated by National Book Award-nominated artist and journalist Molly Crabapple, to Simon Boughton at Norton Children’s, in an exclusive submission, by Bridget Wagner Matzie at Aevitas Creative Management for the author, and by Alice Whitwham at The Cheney Agency for the illustrator.

“How the Taxi Workers Won” wins Best in Show from the Society for News Design

Molly’s story “How the Taxi Workers Won” in the Economic Hardship Project won Best in Show from the Society for News Design in the micro newsroom category.

Judges praised the “gorgeous, emotional portraits of the taxi drivers.” saying “Molly Crabapple’s work reminds me how much I have in common with every other human who shares this earth. In these images, she showed struggle and joy in one stroke.”

If you haven’t read the story of how NYC taxi drivers launched a successful hunger strike to have their debt renegotiated, you can read it here.

2021 – Year in Review

In the quiet nights before New Years, I like to sit with my notebook and try to remember what I did in the twelve months prior — to pick out moments from the procession of meals cooked and phone calls made, of glasses of whisky emptied, drawings inked, words edited and ink spilled.  Most of these memories stay in my notebook, but here is the place for a more professional accounting.

This year I wrote more of my book on the Jewish Labor Bund, which is made slower because I have to do so much for the research in Yiddish (bless you, CYCO books). I wrote less for publication, but here are a few favorite pieces:

“How the Taxi Drivers Won” for The Nation– a cover story on how New York’s cabbies pulled off one of the year’s most inspiring labor victories.

“Occupy Memory” for New York Review of Books – a meditation on Occupy Wall Street, which turned ten this year, and changed both me and the world. 

A love letter to New York City for Lithub 

I painted murals for Bluestockings Bookstore and the Clemente Soto Velez Center.

My art appeared on walls all over New York.

Photo by @michaelhermidaz

I made a video about debt for The Intercept with my ever collaborators Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt. Our video series Welcome to the Zowon an Edward R Murrow award, a gold medal from the Society for News Design, and a bunch of other awards I forgot. It was nominated for two Emmys.  

I illustrated a year of covers for Dissent.

I illustrated a massive Amnesty International report on the persecution of Uighars in Xinjiang 

My friends at Radix Media released Fanning the Flames, a coloring book of my old school burlesque drawings.

I’ve travelled little since COVID began.  To make up for it, I had New York. I cooked for the Chinatown free fridge and left flowers at my great grandparents’ grave, and walked with BombaYo’s annual parranda in Bushwick, warmed by the joy of every old lady who stopped to dance. I went out to Hunts Point for the Teamsters strike. I hung with the taxi drivers since the first night of their sit-in at City Hall. I stayed up till dawn at the Chelsea Hotel, where a few old-school bohemians have held onto their apartments like fortresses. I made a million bottles of coquito. I had my friends, my man, my parents, my city… and though I miss the world terribly, these are enough.  

“Your Debt Is Someone Else’s Asset”

The newest video for The Intercept is out now.

“A collaboration between The Intercept; artist Molly Crabapple and her creative partners at Sharp As Knives productions; and writer Astra Taylor, this short film invites us to understand our debt in new ways. Our monthly payments are a source of profit, a form of wealth transfer from struggling borrowers to the well-to-do. These profits are a source of power; debt is never just about money. In the United States, debt has long been used as a form of social control and a tool of white supremacy.”

-The Intercept

Suffolk Street Solidarity – December 8th

Bluestockings and The Clemente are putting together an exciting event for Dec. 8th at 6:30pm! Both in-person (vax required) and online. Live musical performances by @chokedupnyc and Claudi of @pinclouds! Remarks from writers, artists, and organizers in our communities including @alokvmenon @ritaindianalamontra @yinq13 & @mollycrabapple! Raffle prizes! Community love!

Tickets available HERE

Black Friday Sale!

New Prints!

Free 8.5×11 Mini-print with each print order!

15% off EVERYTHING in the shop!

From now until 11/30

We’re also doing another

GIVING TUESDAY GIVEAWAY

If you donate at least 25$ to a local food bank between now and Giving Tuesday, you can enter to win one of five signed copies of “Fanning The Flames, A Molly Crabapple Coloring book” from Radix Media

Just send proof of donation to [email protected]

Five winners will be selected by Dec 1st
Offer only valid for shipping addresses within the US