Exploring the Yardbird Reader
Initiated under the editorial directorship of Ishmael Reed, Yardbird made room in publishing for marginalized artists from many walks of life.
The Lost World of Pre-War Malay Cinema
Using the few surviving copies of the 1940s magazine Film Melayu, historian Timothy Barnard chronicles the discourse surrounding the Golden Age of Malay film.
Gay Mass Consumption Before Stonewall
In the 1960s, the Mattachine Society had only a few thousand members. But tens of thousands of men subscribed to physique magazines published by gay entrepreneurs.
The Gumshoes Who Took On the Klan
In the pages of Black Mask magazine, the Continental Op and Race Williams fought the KKK even as they shared its love of vigilante justice.
How to Interpret the Meaning of an Image
This week, we practice using our skills of visual analysis and learn how to "read" deliberately constructed images.
Reading Aloud in the Early Republic
Magazines of the freshly founded United States drew legitimacy and stability from the collective voice and sociability of their editors.
The Short but Influential Run of Ebony and Topaz
The 1927 art and literature magazine only ran for a single issue, but “proved an integral component of Harlem Renaissance cultural production."
Discovering the “Gay Lifestyle” through 1970s Magazines
The gay men's magazines QQ and Ciao! were unabashedly liberated, but they still catered to an exclusive audience.
A New Civil Rights Movement, a New Journal
Freedomways, the African American journal of politics and culture chronicled the civil rights and Black freedom movements starting in the early 1960s. Read it on JSTOR.
ONE: The First Gay Magazine in the United States
ONE is a vital archive, but its focus on citizenship and “rational acceptance” ultimately blocked it from being the safe home for all that it claimed to be.