Still Handing Things Out

On Form, Content, and Sticking Your Neck Out

May 05, 2026

Back in the late 80s, I was a guest at what should have been my own college graduation, but I had taken a semester off the year before to move to California, thinking I was going to transfer to UC Berkeley.

Once I discovered Berkeley wasn’t all that different from UMass, I decided to just go back East to finish what I’d started. Which is why I wasn’t graduating when I “should” have been, but accompanying the parents of a good friend to watch the ceremony.

As a member of the Radical Student Union, I thought I should make good use of my time at this very large event, so I was helping other student activists by handing out stickers promoting the rights of gay people to be foster parents as well as to be legally able to adopt—something that became a case in the Massachusetts Supreme Court a few years later.1

Back then, the gay rights symbol was a pink triangle and this particular sticker was basically a big pink triangle with a slogan on it. I knew that most people at that event probably didn’t know what that symbol represented, and I also knew that the idea of gay rights was still a new one in that liberal but very Catholic state, so I decided to be light on the particulars and strong on cheerfulness.

I faced myself outward toward the hordes wandering into the stadium, stickers in tow. As people walked in, I’d ask, “Would you like a sticker?” and then, smiling hugely, I’d announce, “It’s FREE!” as I peeled off a sticker to put on their lapel.

I got A LOT of people to wear those stickers that day, and I loved it. You might be thinking that perhaps my methods were a little fishy, and maybe they were. But in my mind, I was pitching for the complete personhood of everyone under the law, and it felt like a righteous cause.

And my friend’s parents, whose eldest son was gay, were sort of giggly as they watched me do this—because they, like me, knew that most people weren’t so clear about what that sticker meant. And at that time, there was still a lot of stigma in many parts of the country about being gay, and I think it felt good for them to see people who weren’t gay be publicly willing to promote gay rights—and that made me happy as well.

The Personal Touch

I remembered that event last Thursday evening when I was finishing up folding a bunch of Resistance Cootie Catchers for the national Fall of Freedom May Day event.

Several of us from the Creative Change Makers group had decided to participate in this event as a decentralized group, putting resistance cootie catchers out in our local communities. Our plan was to offer them in some public space with a little sign inviting people to take one, play with one, or share one.

That was still my plan, but as I was folding on Thursday night, that bolder twenty-one year old kept popping up in my mind. I thought, why not also try handing them out directly?

So Friday morning I filled a reusable grocery bag with my catchers, lifted my chin, and headed out the door.

Offering anything directly to a stranger feels riskier than surreptitiously plopping a bowl somewhere, and I was nervous. So I decided to start with a sympathetic audience, and brought them to the tail end of a small May Day protest that I knew was happening in the center of town.

These activists were all receptive and happy to take a free catcher, and that felt good. Several also mentioned they’d be willing to put theirs out in public somewhere, so I felt like I was increasing my army a little—which also increased my confidence.

I then drove to a big local coffee shop, nervously walked up to the first table of women I saw, smiled and said cheerfully, “Happy May Day! Would you like a Cootie Catcher? It’s FREE.” I handed one to the woman nearest to me and she took it.

“Oh wow, I used to make those!” she said as she realized what it was.

Looking at her face, I could see her filled with nostalgia. “Right?!” I said. “It’s just like when we were kids, but I’ve turned mine into a zine.” Relieved, I smiled again and walked away.

Then I approached a very serious young woman working on her laptop. “Happy May Day!” I said. She looked up, confused. “Would you like a cootie catcher? It’s FREE.” I handed her a catcher and . . . her face actually lit up. She too, remembered making these catchers. I was starting to feel emboldened.

Once my bag of single catchers was empty, I went to my favorite coffee shop to ask the baristas if they’d be willing to put my bowl of free catchers out for their customers, but. . .they were closed for May Day—yay! Just another reason they’re my favorite coffee shop.

So instead, I took my grocery bag holding my full bowl of catchers to the town library. I sat in a chair next to a small table and carefully lifted out the bowl, placed it on a table, and rearranged the catchers just so. I looked around to see if anyone was watching me, but of course they weren't. I snapped a picture and headed out the door.

Later, I decided to swing by the library right before they closed to check to see if anyone had taken a catcher and to perhaps retrieve any that still lingered. But when I arrived, both the bowl and the catchers were gone. I don’t know if people actually took them one by one or if the librarians confiscated the bowl and the catchers altogether.

Form and Content

Afterward, as I thought back on the day, I was very glad I had decided to approach several people directly, because it taught me something important.

As an artist, I am obsessed with the relationship between form and content. And it was fascinating to me to see how the cootie catcher form—a paper toy that so many people had personally made as a child—created a greater reception for my content. People were willing to look. Willing to read. Willing to take something from the hand of a stranger.

While I had already understood that intellectually, now I knew it in my body.

I’m also still glad that I put out a full bowl of catchers in a public space without saying anything, I just wish I had lingered for a while afterward to see what might happen.

It always takes a little courage to stick your neck out in public. But every time you do it, it changes you. And every time you take action, it leads you to more action.

For instance, the reason I could see the possibilities in the cootie catcher form is because I had been spending months teaching people how to make different kinds of tiny signs. So when I saw how my now-friend Amelia Williams was making cootie catchers filled with her poetry—it clicked. I knew that particular form could be our next tiny sign format. Our next zine format.

My action led to more action. My creativity led to more creativity. This is how it works.

What’s Next

I like the idea of continuing to explore the cootie catcher form with different types of political content and connection.

So for the June Creative Change-Maker’s call, I’ll be offering a workshop on creating a personal reflection within a cootie catcher toy. Less factual zine and more personal letter.

We’ll explore how we might use this nostalgia-filled form to get as personal as possible—even if that means we still keep it anonymous to feel comfortable enough to do this.

I think our theme for that call will be something like “Love Letters to a Nation,” or “What I wish for my country” or . . . something along those lines.

We’ll do a few writing exercises to dig down into what matters most to us, and how we can communicate that to a stranger through anonymous but heartfelt cootie catchers. And I’ll teach you how to design the catchers so that your letter makes sense in the toy format.

My hope is for us to be able to put these out in our communities over July 4th weekend as a deeply personal counter narrative to the boatload of “Up is Down” “Corruption is Honesty” “Fascism is Democracy” that will be pervading the airwaves.

It’s happening on Wednesday June 3 at 9am Pacific,10am Mountain, 11am Central, and noon Eastern.

Come make something with us.

In the meantime, here’s a few photos from some of the Creative Change Maker participants who also put resistance cootie catchers out in their communities on May Day.

And if you want to download either cootie catcher template, click here. (Just scroll halfway down the page…)

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