• Our friend, the pawpaw

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep you apprised of local things you can throw your money at, we present Localism, a Blogh series that looks at local offerings on crowd-funding and e-commerce sites. Today we look at projects currently funding on Kickstarter and Indie Go Go, including a book about pawpaws and a shirt that mashes up Che Guevara and John Galt. Read on after the break!

This one looks plenty worthwhile:

Pawpaw: The story of America's forgotten fruit. I'll be honest. I had pawpaw once, and I wasn't huge on it. But, it's native to our area, and what with bananas on the way out, maybe it's our savior. This campaign looks to fund a book about the fruit. Pledge enough, and you'll get some fresh pawpaws posted to you.

Over halfway to her goal is singer-songwriter Heather Kropf, whom we've interviewed and reviewed before. She's looking to fund her fourth album, and the campaign ends at the end of the month.

Almost to its deadline and, perhaps astonishingly, over 80 percent funded, is Galtuevara Shirts for All!, a project that presents two basically meaningless pseudo-political signifiers in one: The Che Guevara image and the phrase "Who is John Galt?" It's just weird enough to be kind of funny.

Over at Indie Go Go, in its last week of funding is the film Progression, headed up by actress and comedian Gab Cody.

Over its funding mark but still worth donating to is a fund for William Reed Wingo, an employee of the Square Cafe who was assaulted while walking in the Strip District. Wingo doesn't have health insurance and is out of paid time off, so friends are raising money to help him while he recovers.

Entering its final week funding is KNOTDance, a dance company headed up by Maddy Landi. CP has covered KNOTdance performances before; the company is now looking for funding to help put together programs and tour.

And on a sad but admirably straightforward note, this poor woman is looking for money to get out of Pittsburgh, where she apparently lives with a cat and clinical depression. We're hoping it's not really Pittsburgh's fault, but hey: Sometimes a change of scenery is necessary. We wish Shontae luck.