The Lumpen Times 30 Years of Radical Media and Building Communities of the Future |
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| Editor:
| Marszewski, Ed |
| Designed by:
| Chiu, Jeremiah |
| ISBN: | 978-1-955125-41-3 |
| Publication Date: | Jan 2025 |
| Publisher: | Hat & Beard, LLC
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | AUD $110.00 |
Book Description:
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A deep archive of the secret histories of Chicago's countercultural milieus over 30 years of community and artistic engagement.
Way back in 1991, a freely-circulated zine called The Lumpen Times wasborn in Champaign, Illinois. The creators would go on to relaunch it inChicago in 1993. Over time, the underground magazine would lead tobuilding a Community of the Future.
More DescriptionA deep archive of the secret histories of Chicago's countercultural milieus over 30 years of community and artistic engagement.
Way back in 1991, a freely-circulated zine called The Lumpen Times wasborn in Champaign, Illinois. The creators would go on to relaunch it inChicago in 1993. Over time, the underground magazine would lead tobuilding a Community of the Future.
Through the certainty of chance, collective engagement, casual encounters, and accidental actions, The Lumpen Timesbecame the hub for a series of cultural platforms spawning hundreds ofprojects, spaces, happenings, exhibitions, and initiatives. Some wereshort-lived, but each project fueled a new one in its wake.
Asan example, they started a record label, which spawnedother publications. Other projects include engaging in dot-communism,opening community art spaces, hosting international art and activismfestivals, and producing thousands of exhibitions and events. They alsobuilt an FM radio station, opened a bar, restaurants, launched abrewery, built another beverage company, created an artists' retailshop, and started community kitchens. This range of passions has becomean interconnected and deeply inclusive set of ventures now called TheBuddy System.
The Lumpen Times: 30+ Years of Radical Media and Building Communities of the Futureshares stories from a few dozen of the thousands of Lumpencollaborators over the years. It contains a visual survey of the printedmatter they produced over the past three decades, illustrating theevolution of the xeroxed-and-stapled zine into an internationallyrecognized cultural periodical.
Thebook is also a catalog of strategies, highlighting dozens of "casestudies" demonstrating how artists, activists, educators, and creativeentrepreneurs of all stripes have built community and culture in theirbeloved city of Chicago via the printed word, physical spaces, and overthe airwaves and digital networks. Each study includes the reason itstarted, examples of its production, and the reasons it failed, mutated,or continues to this day.