Tasha Pennington
Calligrapher in Chief
firm believer that handwriting still matters
Hi. I'm Tasha and yes, there are two n's in penn·manship. That's my family name, Pennington. I've been proud of it my whole life and I wasn't going to leave it out of the thing I love most. I taught middle school science from 2014 to 2022.
As a Black woman in a classroom every single day, doing everything I could with what I had which, a lot of the time, wasn't nearly enough. I haven't forgotten what that feels like. More on that in a minute.
how this started
In 2017, I was teaching full-time and quietly falling apart.
I'd had to cancel my yoga membership; the one thing keeping me regulated. And without it, I could feel myself slipping. My mother-in-law sat me down and said: find something therapeutic. Find something that brings you back to yourself.
So three times a week, instead of downward dog, I practiced brush lettering. At my kitchen island, with a cheap pen and paper I bought at the craft store.
"The thing about calligraphy is you have no choice but to be present. Focusing on each letter meant I didn't have the capacity to think about anything else."
That's exactly what happened to me. I wasn't thinking about lesson plans or parent emails. I was thinking about the beautiful humps of my lowercase m. It was the most peaceful I'd felt in months.
I posted my work on Instagram, because that's what millennials do. Within weeks, people were asking if I could do their wedding — and in 2018, I officially launched penmanship calligraphy. A pun on my maiden name & my beautiful handwriting. I still think it's a great joke.
Today, penn•manship offers on-site calligraphy for corporate events and weddings, beginner calligraphy classes across the DMV, and a monthly Snail Mail Club that ships nationwide. A portion of every purchase goes back to fund science classrooms — because I haven't forgotten what it felt like to need more resources than I had.