New York Artist Chari Pere commissioned to capture Lady Liberty’s essence in a new Statue of LiberTEA Grape InTEApendence tea crowdfunding campaign
LOS ANGELES, October 3, 2023 - The first crowdfunding campaign in America was the Statue of Liberty. The TeaBook, a small business started on Kickstarter, returns to crowdfunding in her honor and seeks America’s help once more. The Kickstarter launches Tuesday, October 3rd at 9am PDT to fund a new Statue of LiberTEA Grape InTEApendence grape flavored tea.
The American Committee for the Statue of Liberty ran out of funds for the Statue's pedestal in 1884, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer came to the rescue. Urging all American’s to donate money towards the statue's pedestal. It was a success and his newspaper New York World raised over $100,000. Noah Bleich, Founder of The TeaBook, stated “our goal is a lot lower, as we only need $2,500 to make her. If we reach our stretch goal of $10,000, we’ll also make a hot apple cinnamon tea featuring fellow New Yorker Alexander HamilTEAn.”
New York World published the names of each person who made a pledge (no matter its size). In essence, the statue was built by communities coming together. Noah hopes to achieve the same thing with his tea. “In this era of partisanship, it is nice to come together for the one thing we all agree on – LiberTEA for all.” For The TeaBook’s pledges, people get tea, art, and laughs.
Noah’s mom, a teacher that passed from cancer, was his inspiration for starting The TeaBook. She valued education above all things other than kindness. It’s for this reason Noah packs a little history in each of his teas’ art, hidden Easter eggs within the design from their story.
In the artwork for Statue of LiberTEA Grape InTEApendence, New York Artist Chari Pere included:
- Lightning bolts striking the statue, (it gets struck by lightning over 600 times per year)
- Broken shackles around her leg, symbolizing freedom, as this was a gift from France after The Civil War and the abolishment of slavery.
- 7 tips of the crown to represent the 7 continents and 7 seas.
- Film camera to represent that it’s the most filmed location in the world, and on the Jersey side as the film industry started in NJ.
- Eiffel towers along the base to remind us of French architect Gustave Eiffel
- And more (can you find them all?)…
“Crowdfunding is about bringing everyone together to create one idea,” Noah explains. “Much like what’s written on our currency, e pluribus unum, which means ‘out of many, one.’”
ABOUT THE TEABOOK
The TeaBook is named after its flagship product, a patented tea organizer designed to help people store, share, and serve their tea. Customers can choose from a unique line of fine teas that come in a variety of fine and punny teas in a varieTEA of blends that ensure that tea is never boring again. VarieTEAS include LiTEArary, MighTEA Women of Herstory, ArTEAists, JewTEAism, Black HisTEAry and LGBQTEA. Based in Los Angeles, The TeaBook is a zero-waste company.
Noah is available for interviews regarding: Tea, art, puns, environmental issues, and small business.
Chari is available to talk about cartooning and being a freelancer.
Kickstarter Campaign: theteabook.com/solstarter
General company info: theteabook.com