University of Pittsburgh Library System

Many times, we try to build activist projects from the ground up, but it is worthwhile to retrace our footsteps and look to the past. Archived publications are invaluable in not only connecting with the roots of current practices, but being able to see what has been useful in the past and applying it today. The focus of this research was to describe and analyze feminist and related activist publications working to dismantle oppression in Pittsburgh in the 1970s and 1980s. Six publications are highlighted, which present six different areas within broader culture of feminist or alternative press. These areas include youth organizing, newspapers, literary magazines, publishers, newsletters, and book reviews. All of these types of publications came together to contribute to a larger community of Pittsburgh feminists that also reflected an even larger imagined community of people who read these and other similar publications. The culture surrounding this movement was similar in many ways to the internet today, but the sense of community in the 70s and 80s is much different. My research explores the ways that community was created from these publications and how they affect functions in archived texts.