Meet J Turpin

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to J Turpin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi J, thank you so much for joining us today. There are so many topics we could discuss, but perhaps one of the most relevant is empathy because it’s at the core of great leadership and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your empathy?

Empathy was instilled in us not only by our family, friends, and community members, but also through the shows, literature, and other forms of media that helped us better understand one another. Additionally, building our non‑profit, Carabiner Collections, in a space where LGBTQIA+ identities are often met with resistance fosters greater empathy toward people with both shared and differing experiences and opinions. When we started showing up with our bookmobile, we received mostly curiosity and excitement, but we also experienced people attempting to debate our existence. What surprised us was how those interactions deepened our empathy rather than hardened us.
Being shouted at teaches you a lot about what fear looks like in other people, and what courage looks like in yourself. Creating a queer-centered space in Texas means learning to hold both joy and tension at the same time. We had to develop the ability to listen for what’s underneath someone’s reaction, whether it’s celebration or anger. Most importantly, we learned that empathy is less about absorbing other people’s emotions and more about staying grounded in our values even when challenged. Through all of this, we’ve built a library rooted in community care, because we know firsthand how powerful it can be when someone treats you gently in a world that often doesn’t.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

J Turpin, Jordan Anderson-Gignac, and Soleil Gignac are the co-founders and co-directors of Carabiner Collections, an LGBTQIA+ community library serving the Brazos Valley of Texas. The essence of our work is queer joy. At its simplest, we get queer books into the hands of people who need them. At its fullest, we’re building a cultural home in a place where those homes have been systematically erased.
Our bookmobile functions like a free, roaming library that meets people where they already are: at parks, festivals, parking lots, bars, and anywhere else our trailer can go. In our first two years, we grew to 500 patrons, hosted a banned book giveaway and literary dance party with Lemony Snicket, and launched the region’s first Pride Book Fair, which brought hundreds of people together for community.
Now we’re expanding. Our planning for our 2026 Pride Book Fair is already underway, and our programming is expanding right alongside it. Our mission is to preserve queer cultural memory and make it radically accessible.
We pour our hearts into supporting our community, both publicly and behind the scenes, because we know firsthand what it feels like to move through the world without that type of support. Our shared experiences fuel our commitment to building the kind of community we once needed.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Curiosity is what brought the three of us together as grassroots organizers in the first place. It was the shared question of “what would it look like to build the queer library we needed growing up?” Follow the questions that keep tugging at you. They’ll lead you to your people. And while passion goes a long way, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have some experience with grant writing, construction, and a good eye for design.
Community organizing demands constant flexibility. Book bans escalate. Event permits get denied. The weather ruins outdoor programming. Our ability to pivot, like turning a blocked Pride Parade into a fully realized Pride Book Fair in under three months, is what keeps our work moving forward. Treat unpredictability as part of the creative process, not a disruption of it.
Care isn’t just a value; it’s a discipline. Running a queer library means supporting patrons who are closeted, navigating family rejection, or finding their first LGBTQIA+ story. We’ve had to learn how to create spaces that feel genuinely safe and affirming. Care work is a skill you build through consistency, humility, and showing up even when it’s inconvenient.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

As a team, “Care Work” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha has shaped the backbone of our organizational philosophy. The book reframes care as collective, interdependent, and accessible. Care is not a burden placed on individuals, but a shared responsibility within our community. A few lessons that guide us:
-Access is culture. The spaces we build should be designed for those most excluded, not retrofitted later to include them.
-Care is not a luxury. It is foundational to survival.
-Community is strongest when everyone’s needs are held with intention.
-Liberation is built through small, consistent acts of care.
“Care Work” helped us understand that Carabiner Collections isn’t just a library, it’s a practice of ongoing mutual support. It reminded us that queer joy is a form of community care, and community care is a form of resistance.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://carabinercollections.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carabinercollections/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Carabiner-Collections-61553405473218/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carabiner-collections-undefined-3a8176374
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CarabinerCollections

Image Credits

Picture of the three co-founders and co-directors is by Beth Symons