As the MC5 sang, the Motor City is burning. In 1965, the MC5's future manager, John Sinclair edited Work #1. Work is hard to come by in Detroit now. Decaying urban infrastructure, foreclosed property, urban fright and flight, bankruptcy, violence. Detroit is a place to steer clear of. . . unless you are an artist. Today the Motor City is running on fumes, yet the time is ripe for a new conflagration. And maybe not the one you would expect. More Watts Towers than Watts Riots.The Haight, the Lower East Side, Cleveland, and Detroit of the 1960s prove that when the shit goes down, mimeo springs up. And miraculously in a matter of time so do property values, storefronts, and sold signs. John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock Pennsylvania, is banking on the fact that a strong art community creates opportunity, stability and growth. Others are following suit.
While there may be no employment opportunities in Detroit, there is plenty of space at cheap prices. I read somewhere that foreclosed properties are selling at around $6000. There is talk of $100, and even $1 property. Out of the urban decay grows Art. See http://www.freep.com/article/20100502/OPINION05/5020426/In-tough-times--groups-keep-Detroit-cultural-picture-bright. Of course, once the artists rebuild the community, the rents and prices go up, the commerical galleries come in, and the scene dies, and the cycle begins anew. The article above suggests this cycle in action.
The key to artistic growth is cheaply cultivating your own space and if possible protecting it from exploitation by established developers and disseminators of intellectual property. Sinclair's Work was just such a vibrant space, but as the history of the MC5 proves the desire to attach that space to the larger economy, and the larger economy's equally powerful desire to colonize that space, are often too strong to resist. Work ran for only five issues; maybe all you can hope for is to work frantically in the moment and then when the moment turns into a sign of the times, move on.
JB
MIMEO MIMEO #8: CURATORS' CHOICE features 16 bibliophiles on 6 highlights from their personal or institutional collections. Contributors include Steve Clay, Wendy Burk, Tony White, Brian Cassidy, Thurston Moore, J.A. Lee, Michelle Strizever, Adam Davis, Michael Basinski, Joseph Newland, Alastair Johnston, Tate Shaw, Michael Kasper, Steve Woodall, Molly Schwartzberg, Nancy Kuhl, James Maynard, and the Utah posse (Becky Thomas, Marnie Powers-Torrey, Craig Dworkin, Emily Tipps, Luise Poulton, & David Wolske)
MIMEO MIMEO #7: THE LEWIS WARSH ISSUE is the first magazine ever devoted in its entirety to poet, novelist, publisher, teacher, and collage artist Lewis Warsh. Warsh was born in 1944 in the Bronx, co-founded Angel Hair Magazine and Books with Anne Waldman in 1966, and went on to co-found United Artists Magazine and Books with Bernadette Mayer in 1977. He is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction and autobiography, the Director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Long Island University in Brooklyn, and as you’ll soon discover, so much more. Includes an introduction by Daniel Kane, an interview conducted by Steve Clay, 10 new stories, 5 new poems, dozens of photographs and collages, and an anecdotal bibliography.
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MIMEO MIMEO #6: THE POETRY ISSUE is devoted to new work by eight poets who have consistently composed quality writing that has influenced and inspired generations since the golden era of the mimeo revolution. Contributors include Bill Berkson, John Godfrey, Ted Greenwald, Joanne Kyger, Kit Robinson, Rosmarie Waldrop, Lewis Warsh, and Geoffrey Young. Cover art by George Schneeman.
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MIMEO MIMEO #3: THE DANNY SNELSON ISSUE examines the relationship between structuralism and the poetries of the mimeo era by presenting a detailed analysis of Form (a Cambridge-UK magazine published in 1966) and Alcheringa (a journal published by Boston University in 1975), two exemplary gatherings that illuminate the historical, material and social circumstances under which theory informed art (and vice versa) in the early works of some of today's most celebrated experimental writers. Also includes a special insert, The Infernal Method, written, designed and printed by Aaron Cohick (NewLights Press).
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MIMEO MIMEO #2: features Emily McVarish on her artist's book Flicker; James Maynard on poet Robert Duncan's early experiences as an editor and typesetter; Derek Beaulieu on the relationship between the influential Canadian poetry journal Tish and Black Mountain College; and an extensive interview with Australian poet and typographer Alan Loney conducted by Kyle Schlesinger. Cover is by Emily McVarish.
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