Los Angeles-based Unnamed Press will donate 50% of the preorder proceeds from its forthcoming children's title, The Happy Broadcast, to help fund an organization that provides legal and health services for LGBTQ refugees as they cross the border.
The indie publisher hopes to raise $5,000 before the book publishes on August 25, a sum that would fund an entire month of operating costs of Casa Arcoiris—an LGBTQ shelter in Tijuana that has aided more than 110 migrants seeking asylum and support at the border.
The Happy Broadcast book is based on illustrator Mauro Gatti's Instagram account of the same name. The account features inspiring and positive international stories, like his posts about an Icelandic tree-hugging campaign or Brazilian reforestation activists, all documented with colorful art that his more than 511,000 Instagram followers share daily on the social network. The publisher has billed the illustrated book as a title "for adults and children of all ages."
“I felt a responsibility as an artist to use my art to highlight positive events, and to share the kind of stories that give us hope,” wrote the author and illustrator on his Instagram page, describing the two-year evolution of his project. “It is my goal, that by sharing these stories, they will inspire us to get involved and enact more positive change for the future.”
Unnamed Press will donate the funds to Choose Love, an organization that has provided aid and supplies to more than one million displaced people through more than 120 projects distributed across Europe, the Middle East, and the border between the United States and Mexico. While the donations go to Choose Love, the funds are all earmarked for Casa Arcoiris.
Originally from Italy, Gatti is a creative director and illustrator who lives in Los Angeles. His illustrations can be found in children’s books like A is for Apricat (Walter Foster Jr., 2019) and Hugo Makes a Change (Flying Eye, 2017).
