Welcome!

Hi y'all! The chat from tonight is attached below. Still riding the vibe from tonight's meeting. Thanks for bringing such rad positivity and earnest inquiry to the room!

This first week we will be reading the Introduction from Danielle Aubert’s The Detroit Printing Co-op and Jess Baines’ essay “A Darn Good Idea” taken from Natural Enemies of Books: A Messy History of Women in Printing and Typography. Check your inboxes for the pdfs.

I’ll be sending out login credentials today. There is no pressure or requirement to use this blog- but have fun with it if you are interested! Share ideas, thoughts, questions, media and research. Feel free to engage in the comments sections of each other’s posts. Let’s get the conversation started!

I’ll start the ball rolling with the cover of a zine called Dykes and Gorgons, a publication put out by separatist lesbians in Berkley in the 1970s. Unfortunately this group excluded trans women from their ranks. Sad to say this was not an unheard of politic in lesbian separatist communities of the time and it is important to recognize how harmful this sentiment was (and in some circles continues to be) to both the trans and lesbian communities. That’s one problem I’ve encountered over the years when going through archives- finding out about the regressive practices that clouded the activities of some of these radical communities. Navigating how to honor queer and feminist histories while also holding those histories accountable for their discriminatory or problematic practices is an ongoing part of my practice. What do we do when our objects of inquiry let us down? This makes me think about a question we raised during our first meeting: what is the role of the curator/ producer in independent production? I think one responsibility should be building their community’s practice with equity and support of vulnerable community members as a visible tenet of operating. That would be in my manifesto!