Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
The Firecracker Press (firecrackerpress.com) is known for its dazzling imagery, bright inks, and sharp sensibilities—perhaps you’ve liberated one of its rock-club posters off a lamppost, or set your gin fizz on one of its cheeky Sasquatch Hunt coasters. The print shop’s had a presence on Cherokee Street for years, but this spring, Eric Woods and crew opened Firecracker Two (an unofficial designation, by the by) in an 8,000-square-foot space at 2612 N. 14th, just down the street from Crown Candy Kitchen. It’s not just workspace, but also a place to preserve large amounts of vintage type and huge antique presses—one of St. Louis’ last teletype machines is here, and it would’ve been scrapped had Woods not rescued it. It still works, its tiny lead cauldron still able to forge type and slugs when a user types out text on the keyboard. There’s a middle room for concerts, mixers, and parties of all sorts, with a modular stage and a bar made from a collage of wood scavenged in South Side alleys. And the most northerly room is home to the brand-new nonprofit Central Print. Its mission is to teach and train the letterpress artists of the future—both kids and adults. In the meantime, Firecracker continues to make its own fabulous work (including those eccentric, poppy posters that everyone wants to steal), while rescuing orphaned type, printer’s cuts, equipment, and ephemera that tells the story of the Midwest’s rich printmaking history. “This stuff’s pretty indestructible,” Woods says. “But we take good care of it, and it takes good care of us.”
