The Chicago Underground Library editors (Meredith, Thùy, Eric) have explored the idea of having a Paper Blog in the past during one of our brainstorming blog meetings. Meredith pointed out the seeming irony of being a physical repository that preserves print materials, and the fact that we were using a virtual media, a blog, to spread the word. So how about a Paper Blog?
Click for more and submission details!
This is a call for submissions for a comp zine written by Illinois librarians & library students! I’m looking for personal experiences, rather than articles you’d submit to a professional journal. An essay on how to get teens to your library? No thanks! A story on the role libraries played in your personal history? Hell yeah! Remember, readers of this zine may or may not be librarians themselves.
Sample topics include thoughts on the library community, what lead you to become a librarian, scenes from a day at your library, library school experiences, public vs. private space in libraries, zines & libraries, a list of found items at your library, or the importance of non-traditional libraries & collections. Think about what you’d like to read in a library zine and then write it!
The zine will be half size (5.5″ x 8.5″). Submissions can be emailed or sent through the usps (please email for mailing address). The deadline is August 1, 2010. Email Heather Colby at indicative (at) gmail dotcom with questions or submissions. Let’s do this!
– Heather Colby
The first time I set foot in the Autonomous Zone (A-Zone) was for a forum on Anarchist economics, held in opposition to the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) meeting which had just happened in town, in November 2002.
The forum was originally supposed to be held at DePaul University, but the school had retracted its permission without explanation, and it just may have been something pretty sinister since later we found out the Chicago Police Department had indeed re-activated its so-called Red Squad (read White Squad) to monitor and infiltrate the A-Zone and four other groups organizing against the TABD.
Immediately it occurred to me the importance of having an alternative space outside of the regular control of the state, church, and schools, to host the forum which represented a direct challenge to the corporations and their governments whose interests were being presented in the TABD meeting.
About three months later I moved to Chicago and became very involved with the A-Zone. I helped organize monthly public forums hosted by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) which I was also a member of, though most of my time there was spent just keeping the door open for whom ever may drop in.
This was the Bucktown space, at 2129 N. Milwaukee Ave. Some of the other groups involved at the time were Anarchist Black Cross Network (ABCN), a juggling Free School, the Anarchist Skins and Punx Unity Crew (ASAP) and people from the South Side Punk House/South Side Crew and the Vegan House.
The Landlord’s Goon Squad
Quite possibly the only time I actually showed up on time for a volunteer shift in the fall of 2003, I was followed in by three rather large men. One told me he wanted the rent. We had already been evicted, and the letter of eviction clearly stated that we would get our last three months in the space rent free if our landlord broke our lease.
The facts of the matter didn’t change things with the goon squad, and they told me they wanted the rent any way before they left.
Upon reflection, it was no surprise since our landlord had already tried to raise our rent higher than allowed by our lease, and when we refused, he evicted us. Then he tried to shake us down for money we didn’t owe him, even according to his own words! I think it showed how even the term itself, landlord, is just a throw back to feudalism. The capitalist pig never did get that money.
The A-Zone in Exile
About two months after we left that space, I started volunteering at the New World Resource Center (NWRC), which was a non-partisan, collectively run, Leftist bookstore located at that time at 1300 N. Western Ave., in Humboldt Park.
We started having A-Zone Collective events and meetings there, reaching a peak in June 2004 when dozens of people showed up to watch “Underground,” a film about the Weather Underground Organization, and participate in a discussion about race and class privilege with ex-member of the Weatherman cadre, Bill Ayers.
Call for submissions
As an ex-A-Zoner, I’m looking for others interested in writing essays about their experiences with the space, to be published with images and excerpts from Wind Chill Factor and A-Zone materials.
I am looking for copies of (Dis) Connection, Sandpaper, Wind Chill Factor, the “Existentialist Blues” pamphlet and anything else of relevance.
All materials can be returned, though I’d archive them at La Biblioteca Popular or donate them to the Chicago Underground Library when finished if that’s okay.
Please write me at alexiwasa at gmail dot com or until about Mayday at 4652 N. Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60640.
- Alex Iwasa
The Chicago Underground Library has just received a donation of A-Zone-related materials, including Wind Chill Factor, The Paper, Arsenal and all the old A-Zone calendars. If interested, contact us ahead of time and we will be able to pull them for viewing when you visit.
HELLO potential contributors! Mildred Pierce Zine is currently seeking submissions of original essays, criticism, comics, interviews, reviews, and other black-n-white ready art-n-writing for print in their upcoming issue. The theme: Comedy and the Grotesque.
“We are looking for work which explores the Comic and the Grotesque. This can run the gamut from explorations of standup comedy to explorations of La commedia dell’arte; from treatises on The Big Toe to scatological manifestos to illustrated field guides to Rabelais, Jackass, and/or the Mutter Museum.”
Check out Mildred Pierce’s submissions page for details! Deadline is March 31. Send pitches and questions to mildredpiercezine@gmail.com.
-Meredith & the Mildred Pierce editors
Got a play you’d like to see produced–or one you need an excuse to write? If you perchanced to miss their Craigslist post, Gorilla Tango Theater in Wicker Park is looking for “all kinds of scripts in all kinds of genres to put on throughout the year,” according to Paul Cosca, the theater’s Junior Executive Producer. “People who are interested in producing their own work are encouraged to apply, but all scripts are welcome.”
What are you waiting for?? Contact Paul at paul@gorillatango.com. And let us know when to come see your production.
-Meredith
Their motto: “Empowering Independent Creative Writers!” Brand spankin’ new Chicago publisher TLT Publishing is currently accepting no-fee submissions for book-length fiction. Work may be submitted with or without a literary agent–check out submission guidelines here.
Another Chicago Magazine is looking for submissions for its January “Another Chicago Issue” issue. Jacob Knabb says:
“ACM is at work on an issue called “Another Chicago Issue.” It’s our 50th issue, so we’re celebrating that nice, round number. It’s also a playful jab at Granta since they didn’t exactly publish a lot of Chicago writers in their Chicago issue. I’d love it if you’d submit something. You have until January 5th to submit. Feel free to forward this information to writers and students you dig and let them know about this issue. We really want to try to give a comprehensive overview of what kind of writing is being produced here in Chicago. The writer must be based in Chicago, but the work needn’t be about Chicago (of course, it’s even lovelier if it is). We make no promises to accept all work that is submitted, of course.”
Also: ACM accepts submissions for all its issues, not just this one! Check out submission guidelines here.
