Hope Rovelto, owner of Little Chair Printing, squeegees ink through a screen while creating T-shirts in her Portland studio. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer In her narrow shop on Congress Street, nestled between walls plastered with colorful posters, Hope Rovelto hunched over the spiderlike screen-printing press, the word VOTE dyed in orange on the shaved back of her head. Using a squeegee, she smoothly guided thick black ink into the gaps in the screen, putting a logo on a previously blank green T-shirt.
She lifted up the screen, inspected her work and placed it on a small conveyor belt to dry. Behind her, a pile of blank green and yellow tees awaited her attention. Rovelto, who is 4 feet, 10 inches tall, is the founder and owner of Little Chair Printing, and the month of June is her busiest time of the year.
Since she moved to Portland in 2018, she says, she has printed T-shirts for local Pride events and organizations. “I’m in the community,” said Rovelto, who uses she/they pronouns. “I really print for my values.
Printing for Pride organizations – the small ones, the big ones – is me helping.” In 2018 and 2019, Rovelto attended Portland Pride with her live printing operation – a screen-printing press attached to the back of her bicycle. In recent years, she has shifted her attention to newer Pride events in smaller communities.
A couple of years ago, she said, the only established Pride celebrations were in the bigger cities in Maine. Recently, they’ve po.