DETROIT'S HALF EMPTY GLASS HALF FULL
BY ALLIED MEDIA CONFERENCE ???
AND THE ula AND ulaPRESS GOT TABLE....
held June 20-22 in the McGregor Conference Center (495 Ferry Mall)
and Community Arts Building on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit
all photos other than kayaking in the grass
below and those 3 of and by yul tolbert
by 'kameelahwrites', flickr.com
report by ULAPress publisher and AMC
attendee, JEFF POTTER
[here's JEFF'S final report from today 7/2/08 with intial drafts to folllow
the Critique feels are fun reading in and of themselves]
Here's my report from the first AMC I attended.
AMC Detroit used to be UPC Ohio. Back in the Ohio day it was big on zines. But times change. I had a new line of novels to release so I hired a table and went to see what's going down.
What's going down is seminars---which I didn't get to see because I was at my table all day! So this will be a limited report...
There's positive potential hidden in the radical media event experience, but basically, it seems like these young people didn't find Lit to be very compelling. But then no one does nowadays! ...Except perhaps MFA-degree kids, but then they're treating it like Career Day. The ULA is out to change that!
Actually, no one seemed to be all that much into print media of any kind that I could see.
There were several print media tables---including tables from AK and Microcosm, two of the biggest alternative publishers---and it didn't seem like they got much action. It's a post-literate age.
Maybe it was just this event, and not the crowd, what with the layout putting the tables in a side-building near one seminar auditorium. There is a main gathering area that probably isn't quite big enough for the tables, either. What can ya do?
Anyway, the YouTube generation needs something really FRESH and CANDID to get them back into reading!
The AMC is now basically a seminars event. Probably it's also a good party event, as the night-time schedule is filled with music action. Back when it was the UPC down in Bowling Green, zines were fresh. The tables were the main thing. This shift to classes is fine---it's just away from print or tables.
For instance, there was at least one class on silk-screening. That's a great skill and art-form. So the AMC is more about how to silk-screen rather than a DIY showcase for folks to show what they've been doing in silkscreening and to, say, affordably display their wares or to trade with other folks whose work they like. The old UPC was a swap bonanza. But how-to is great, too.
It's just slow for tables. Or, again, maybe it's location, location... Or both!
I think they said 500-1000 people were involved in the 3 days and nights of alt.media action.
Everyone is ostensibly included, but the emphasis is on women, people of color and alt.gender. For the media side it would be music, politics and video/web. Print? Hallooooo? (Can you hear the echo?)
I explained the ULA mission to a couple dozen people in total and got a good reception and sold some books.
As always it was fun to try to dial in a display that catches attention.
Karl Wenclas showed up and was nice to have around. He has a good sales spirit. He didn't mention any future plans for specific action.
Michael Jackman said he might show but didn't.
Karl said that I should've brought Urban Hermitt zeens---I have never seen any, though. They might've been great for this crowd. Microcosm had 2 remaining copies of the Hermitt book, which I vaguely recalled hearing about long ago. I note that AK has a staff of 12 and Microcosm has 9. Good for them!
Yul Tolbert was there most of the time. He was sketching. He's a quiet guy! : ) I think he had a nice time. It's always fun to show your stuff---and he had a big spread of comix laid out. Quite a few people were interested in his work.
Yul and I didn't put up his "controversial" ULA "babe" poster. This was a hard-sell crowd for a "bikini girl." My idea is that transgression is supposed to be endless, but I'm not sure that view is shared by all, especially those who are really into identity and the turf that comes with it. Karl says it's a great poster and that controversy is good. I agree, but I have to see a winning outcome. : ) The jump from hostility to sales isn't always an easy one, eh?
***
My table was mostly a showcase of the main line of the 7 new ULA titles, the AllStar trading cards, and the new poster. They all had a coherent, synergizing look.
I taped up a printed name banner plus 4 posters.
For handouts I had the following: *ULA catalog, *ULA Media Hits flier, *ULA slogans flier, *the "Boring Fiction" sticker.
As I sat there I sensed that the poster didn't relate our main message in a clear enough, punchy way. So I markered up a few more slogan sheets and taped them up, too---thus totally cluttering up our visual impact. Ha.
I'll post my "extra" slogans here that I thought up.
It was funny the things that occurred to me as young people strolled by, as I tried to figure out how to tell them in a phrase who we are.
Free the novel!
Access for writers!
Noise for writers!
Impact for writers!
Popularizing literature!
New relevance for literature!
***
I, for one, did buy and read some neat material at the show. I can relate to the Anarchist/Commie struggle in the Canadian journal "Upping the Anti," but also a major aspect of it seems nuts to me. They are "anti" several big bad things---but why not firstly be "for" truth, justice, beauty? And if you are, wouldn't that cover it all? If you're anti-gender-bias then you're FOR equality. The upshot being that to exclude men and their work, for instance, from anything seems like an internal contradiction of doom.
Then there's the hierarchy that Anti's partake in. They say they're against hierarchy, but the Anti system sets it up anyway. There's always at least a two-part ranking involved, starting with the good guys versus the bad, right? But it grows from there. It's at the root of the schizmatic nature of their scene---all the infighting---and it's the joke of these movements.
One of the journal's articles was by a longtime gay activist who was "critiquing" the privilege of the andro/bendy "queer" anarchists---they hadn't done the hard work of entirely outing their privilege yet. But how does he know what they've done? Really, he's putting himself above them. And he's given himself license to do so. --Privilege even!
I also overhead a guy talking to a lady at the Commie booth about trying to date another Commie lady. She said that a barrier might be the high standards that the lady Commie would have. Yes, this poor man clearly had more work to do to measure up to his erstwhile lady friend. ...And, undoubtedly, she would know it when she saw it if he ever makes the grade.
To me, these critiques have a lot that is compelling. But not the exclusion and hierarchy. They also have an existential confusion going on, I think---mistaking material signs for their inner meanings.
But we can learn from both their pro's and their con's.
So that's my critique of their critique!
***
Our nation once had vibrant art. We've recently gone thru a negative, destructive, exploitive phase in the cycle. A cycle is only natural. It's time again for a change. The next positive future for the literary scene relates as well to any positive future for the critique scene. How can we bring culture to life along with inclusive relevance? How can activists and artists reach out to the mainstream with fresh ideas which are wild but at the same time sustainable and mature? Freedom and creativity are liberating but they're also responsible. They build on and respect the past and their own limits. Our movements can't win by doing things that intentionally cut us off from the larger world, or by preaching to the converted, or by always making the same old enemies.
***
It was also humorous trying to come up with one-liners to describe our books.
Several gendro types caught the Crazy Carl magic and gravitated to his FAT ON THE VINE book then looked a bit tweaked when they read the bit about the "Nixon lesbian" on the back cover---so I had to head them off at the pass with a remark that "this is an outrageously transgressive book that has an amazing heart to it despite it all." Didn't work, but what can ya do.
TEXAS GANG was "a cosmic cowboy, beat western, hippy western."
Steve's WASTED ANGELS was "coming of age but with true candor."
Here are some longer slogans that I had listed on a flier:
New Writing for a New Century!
A Fresh Alternative to MFA Writers!
A Way to Amplify Your Voice!
Antics & Exposes that get Big Media Impact with No Budget!
Breaking out the Underground! Freeing the Book! Daring to publish the untouchables!
Rough, risky, relevant... Candid, exciting, activist!
Every other art form has indy power—it's time for Lit to join in!
The one and only literary activist experience! Join in and take us with you!
Independents Working Together!
Don't Need Badges, Don't Need Permission! Unbought, unbossed!
Outlaws! Outsiders! Folk! Roots! Populist!
Revive Reading!
Up from the Streets!
Zeensters, Readers, Writers, Artists...Joining Together!
***
snap-shots to the right and left above are by the ULAPress' Jeff Potter
****
AT JEFF'S SUGGESTION ALL EARLY DRAFTS AND NOTES FROM THE DAY OR SO FOLLOWING THE AMC SATURDAY 6/21 HAVE BEEN RESHUFFLED BACK TO THEIR SOURCE-- THE ULA PROBOARDS FORUM WHICH IS ACCESSIBLE ONLY TO ULA MEMBERS AND THEIR GUESTS-- EXCEPT THE BRIEF RALLYING CRY BELOW IN ORDER TO REMIND US ALL OF THE SPIRIT AND THE COMMON SENSE WE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARIES CELEBRATE TODAY, INDEPENDENCE DAY OF 2008.
-- FDW
ULAer YUL TOLBERT above, here, down there!
I read some neat material there---I can relate to theAnarchist/Commie struggle but there's also a lot there that's just nuts to me. They are "anti" several major things---but why not just be "for" truth, justice, beauty---wouldn't that cover the same turf? And wouldn't that be MOST inclusive? When you're "anti-oppression" aren't you basically FOR justice? To me, the "anti" style sets up a false binary---yet much of their material complains of the exact same thing, especially as regards the binary of gender. To me, their tactic seems to be about enjoying excluding and putting down the White Guy in addition to critiquing the System. Well, that seems dumb, mean and like a dead end. It's gotta be inclusive. The positive future in all this seems to relate to the positive future for Lit: how can we reach out to the mainstream with fresh, wild, relevant art and ideas? You can't do it by doing things that intentionally cut you off from the larger world, or by preaching to the converted, or by always making/confronting the same old enemies.
---- from early draft by JEFF
Free the novel!
Access for writers!
Noise for writers!
Impact for writers!
Popularizing literature!
New relevance for literature!
Here are some longer slogans that I had listed on a flier:
New Writing for a New Century!
A Fresh Alternative to MFA Writers!
A Way to Amplify Your Voice!
Antics & Exposes that get Big Media Impact with No Budget!
Breaking out the Underground! Freeing the Book! Daring to publish the untouchables!
Rough, risky, relevant... Candid, exciting, activist!
Every other art form has indy power—it’s time for Lit to join in!
The one and only literary activist experience! Join in and take us with you!
Independents Working Together!
Don’t Need Badges, Don’t Need Permission! Unbought, unbossed!
Outlaws! Outsiders! Folk! Roots! Populist!
Revive Reading!
Up from the Streets!
Zeensters, Readers, Writers, Artists...Joining Together!
****
BLAME YUL TOLBERT AGAIN FOR THE DERIVE ABOVE!
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