Pauline Lipman
Annie Knepler
James Tracy
Greg Sholette
Dan S. Wang
Ryan Hollon
Nell Taylor
Sarah Smizz
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Pauline Lipman
January 5, 2007
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter to express my appreciation for the publication AREA and my support for its continued growth and development. AREA has become an important and unique publication/project in Chicago. From the city’s mainstream corporate media (the major newspapers, TV and radio stations, including public radio) one would have little inkling that bubbling beneath the surface of ever-expanding downtown skyscrapers, tourist destinations, and condominium mania there is a vibrant and diverse grass roots resistance to inequality, injustice, and shrinking public space in the city. AREA is one of very few publications that bring us the voices of that resistance. As a publication, it is a fresh and timely voice articulating the energy and creativity of Chicago grassroots activism of all stripes. Each of its issues has brought together diverse, critical perspectives on key issues in the city. As a project, it actually creates a space of dialogue and common ground among social activists from a wide range of communities, political projects, and points of view. This aspect of the project is realized in AREA release parties which create a physical space for this dialogue.
I had the honor of being asked to write an introductory article for the first issue of AREA on the changing nature of the city and efforts by grassroots organizations and artists to challenge injustices in housing, transportation, and the use of public space. A few weeks after the first issue was published, I was contacted by the producers of a Toronto public radio (CBC) news show. They were developing a week-long series on Chicago as a model of urban development that Toronto’s mayor was proposing to emulate. The show’s producers had found my article in AREA on-line and wanted to interview me for the series. They told me the publication was the only thing they found that challenged the city’s development strategy and that raised questions about the displacement and exclusion of low-income and working class people of color. I think this anecdote reflects a larger truth – in a period of media consolidation and info-bite news there is a need for, and an audience for, a small (though expanding), relevant, and honest publication that voices multifaceted critique and resistance. I am looking forward to continued collaboration with the community being built through and around AREA.
Sincerely,
Pauline Lipman
Professor, Policy Studies in Education
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Annie Knepler
To Whom It May Concern,
I am pleased to write a letter of support for AREA Chicago and I welcome the chance to highlight the depth, quality, and importance of AREA’s publications and programming. I have been a member of AREA’s advisory committee since its inception and have worked as a volunteer editor and proofreader. Furthermore, the Neighborhood Writing Alliance has collaborated with AREA on several projects, including a series of public forums and the reprinting of pieces by Journal of Ordinary Thought writers, and each time we have benefited from their knowledge, resources, and their ability to work incredibly well (and tirelessly) with others. My commitment to AREA Chicago is indicative of the interest and dedication the project has instilled in those involved with it.
AREA Chicago serves an important function by recognizing the varied projects throughout the city that creatively address social issues. By documenting these projects in their biannual publication, AREA helps demonstrate the dynamic ways in which Chicago’s social, artistic, and physical landscape is shaped in large part by the works and actions of its residents. And AREA does more than document these projects; it serves as a potential site for networking among those organizations. In doing so, AREA fulfils an important need in a city where smaller projects depend on collaboration.
I have been consistently impressed by the quality and relevance of the work produced in AREA’s bi-annual publication. I look forward to each issue’s release and regularly apply the ideas, analysis, and information I receive from AREA articles. Each issue is extensively researched, and the editors and AREA associates work hard to seek out projects and articles from communities that receive too little press in the mainstream media. This research demonstrates AREA’s commitment to encouraging new voices and perspectives.
AREA’s programming, including its release events, help further the mission of the publication. The “Infrastructure Lecture Series” exposes Chicagoans to new ideas, and the release events--always crowded, lively, and diverse--provide an opportunity for people from a variety of projects to meet and share ideas. Despite the amount of programming in Chicago, there are few opportunities for people from such a wide range places and organizations to come together.
In just two years, AREA has made a significant impact on the city. In the coming months and years, I hope to see AREA sustain its dynamic and important work.
Sincerely,
Annie Knepler
Associate Director, Neighborhood Writing Alliance
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James Tracy
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to you to express my wholehearted support for AREA Magazine. The project seemlessly ignites conversation around deep seated urban issues while remaining absolutely practical and useful. Similar efforts tend to gravitate towards two opposite poles: inaccessible theory or single-issue reporting. The editors of AREA of found a new path, producing an intelligent, entertaining and subversive read that honors the community organizing traditions of their hometown while pushing the reader to think of new possibilities.
As the President of the San Francisco Community Land Trust, I was invited to give a talk in Chicago by AREA on the topic of new directions in housing policy. It was there where I witnessed what AREA is really up to: bringing together people who might never have a chance to meet each other to think about the direction of the city. At the event were local organizers, public housing residents, planners, artists, union workers, just to name a few. I returned to San Francisco inspired by their work, as unusual alliances are one of the only ways forward today.
Please feel free to contact me at (415) 260-9496 if you have any further questions.
Best,
James Tracy, San Francisco Community Land Trust
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Greg Sholette
To Whom It May Concern:
I write this letter to support the important work of AREA. As a writer I find the resources this project makes available to me extremely valuable. As someone who is not based in Chicago, I find AREA imperative to expanding my horizons. And as the co-founder of two artist collectives (Political Art Documentation/Distribution and REPOhistory) I am constantly impressed by the way Daniel Tucker, and his colleagues, Jim Duignan and Dakota Brown, have broken open the mold that shapes the typical NFP in order to produce a sustained practice combining organizing, critical writing, cultural pedagogy, and activist urbanism. Added to this list of activities is the journal that AREA publishes twice a year. This publication, combined with the group’s exemplary use of the Internet, produces a unique resource that reaches beyond the mid-west home base of AREA and informs artists and writers, educators and urban activists from New York to Montreal, from Budapest, to Zagreb and beyond regarding such pertinent issues as gentrification, incarceration, globalism, and the geopolitical mapping of our present socio-political coordinates.
Such endeavors are all the more impressive at a time when so much is at stake within the areas of contemporary culture, civic society, and the public sphere in general, yet so little is being systematically attempted. Yes, certainly much has been written lately about artists who engage issues of politics. Museums and other mainstream cultural institutions have once again, if cautiously, begun to display such work. However, strong, creative work produced outside the institutional frame in a sustained way is still largely invisible. Such practices often involve forgoing critical attention of the type typically heaped upon gallery artists. That is often too high a price to pay in our professionally obsessed society. And while I hope such blindness does not last, its reality makes support for groups such as AREA all the more pressing.
It is fair to say that Chicago is a place where the need for a critical response to social ills outstrips the means for such engagement. Fortunately for Chicagoans, AREA provides not only a fresh perspective on cultural criticism, but it also fills a sizeable gap left by the collapse of other regionally-based publications, most notably the New Art Examiner. However, by virtue of its being rooted in a specific location and a particular community, AREA has gone on to develop a broader network of interests seeking to develop similar practices across the U.S. and the globe. In a phrase, AREA is inspiring to all artists and activists who themselves aspire to engage the social sphere in a critical way.
Sincerely yours,
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Gregory Sholette
January 10, 2007
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Dan S. Wang
To Whom It May Concern:
I write in support of AREA, an initiative centered around the production and distribution of a bi-annual journal. AREA brings into productive mixture visual artists, educators, policy workers, community and political activists. Contact takes place at AREA sponsored events (seminars, panel discussions, and social gatherings) as well as in the pages of the publication. Through its manifestations as a journal and organizational vehicle, AREA has emerged as a self-constructed and actively cultivated node in a fertile network of people and groups engaged in progressive, fearless, and practical efforts to change the world for the better. By bringing together artists, writers, activists, and designers in different combination, and making use of an ever-changing cast of editorial advisers, AREA is also a model in experimental group formation which stands out even in today's age of collaborative cultural work. By creatively making use of a variety of funding sources, but keeping a commitment to producing the journal as a free publication without advertising, AREA offers itself as a model for sustainble publishing under the challenging conditions of the present. For all these roles, qualities, and working processes, I know of no other project like AREA.
In a very short time, AREA has become a place for serious policy discussions and independent criticism of city governance, a medium through which activists and organizations from throughout Chicago learn about each other, an indispensable grassroots teaching tool, a model of advocacy journalism, and a key element in the media landscape of the Chicago art scene. The focus on and service to Chicago is, maybe surprisingly, not in any way an indicator of provincialism. On the contrary, when I travel I always find people appreciative for the view into Chicago's socially-engaged art world provided by AREA, and have taken to using issues of AREA as a way of engaging in exchanges with people doing parallel work in other parts of the country and the world. It is precisely because of its place-specificity that AREA makes a significant contribution to the global exchange of information.
I feel fortunate to have contributed texts to the journal, and privileged to have enjoyed and learned from AREA events. We should all look forward to the continued evolution and growth of AREA by supporting the initiative with gifts of money, labor, and our creative inspiration. It is a good investment.
Sincerely,
Dan S. Wang 10/09/08
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Ryan Hollon
To Chicagoans Everywhere:
AREA is a gift to every lover of the city. It is a promise kept to everyday heroes so that they will not be soon forgotten and that their stories will not be erased by bulldozers or wrecking cranes. AREA is a sweet something whispered into the ears of urban daydreamers, demanding that they rise to realize their dreams before things like 'vision' and 'hope' have been outlawed. The city is where we are born, where we go to be forgotten, it is where we move to find work and where we stay to build family. AREA helps urban dwellers to become alive, invites us to be remembered, it is where we go to find truth and where we stay to build friendship. Yes, AREA is a gift to every lover of the city.
My name is Ryan and I have been in love with Chicago for 7 years now. Though sometimes we argue and we often have our differences, Chicago knows that I am here to stay. Throughout my years with Chicago, AREA has been a true friend and great ally. In difficult moments AREA has helped me to understand Chicago better, to see where it is coming from and all that it has been through. In moments of great happiness AREA has helped me to celebrate, to share the joy that Chicago brings me and to deepen my connections with others who call the Windy City home. In times of boredom AREA has helped me to rekindle my passion for the city, to look at her streets with fresh eyes and a renewed heart.
I know of no other project, organization, publication, think tank, act tank, or community that is more committed to understanding Chicago's elusive ways than AREA. This is a commitment that does not depend on staff or annual budgets to express itself, and that turns every dollar it touches into a better informed, more meaningful public. This is a commitment that is not bound to any single issue, worldview, or geography. And so, with Chicago as my witness, it is with a great sense of appreciation and honor that I declare my support for AREA. Without it, I honestly do not know where Chicago or I would be today.
With Love,
Ryan Hollon October 13, 2008
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Nell Taylor for the Chicago Underground Library
AREA is an essential tool for anyone trying to make a difference in Chicago. The city has consistently produced an alarming rate of acceptance for absurdities of government and a particular ability to take for granted the cultural resources available to its citizens. As an almost professional-grade observer, this marks me as a Native almost as instantly as referring to Chicago as “the city” does.
AREA tends to make my job as an information purveyor easier, whether it’s providing context and background for much of our collection or serving as the one-stop guide I pull out for anyone new to Chicago who really wants to understand what they are getting themselves into. But AREA makes my job harder, too, and I’m happy to let it.
When I started the CUL, I strived to be aggressively neutral, shying away from anything that might seem like promotion of one publication over another, or one idea, subculture, era, print run, or font preference. Recommending AREA to everyone who walked in the door was clearly a violation of this core tenet, but I was compelled to adopt an AREA Exception because it was too important to the community not to recommend.
A few weeks ago, I helped copy edit an article from an upcoming issue of AREA and got caught on a sentence that I felt might help the argument if it could be made more objective. Daniel’s response was, “Well, AREA’s not exactly ideologically consistent.”
Somehow, despite reading just about every issue, I had missed that.
I had just assumed that everyone, like my librarian-self, was striving for balance and even-handedness, which is a nice thought (oh, polite Midwesterners), but frankly kind of idiotic on my part. I had a neutrality bias, and it’s just as problematic as any other.
If you ever want to be shocked out of critical distance, AREA is a good way to accomplish that. There is certainly a time and place for giving people access to as much information as they can stomach and then stepping back to let them draw their own conclusions, but we need a publication like AREA to remind us that we can’t all just be observers.
I support AREA and encourage anyone else who wants their own ideologies challenged to do the same. Some things are just too important to remain neutral about. AREA is one of them, and a great starting point if you’re looking for a few hundred more.
- Nell Taylor - December 2008
Sarah Smizz Letter of Support January 2010
Dear whom ever it may concern/area advisory team/ Chicago city lovers everywhere,
I write this letter from a small working class town all the way in the UK (like in the movies Billy Elliot or This Is England). My hometown was a village built around the industry of mining. The city where I live now, Sheffield, was built around making Steel. Both of those industries are now non-existent since the late 80’s.
However, unlike Sheffield and Doncaster’s partner cities like Manchester and Liverpool, no industry or money came their way to help the people get back on to their feet. Doncaster has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the whole of Europe, yet one of the lowest rates of students attending college/universities and no opportunity to enter industry, which you could gain a skill in.
Naturally such issues surrounding cities has informed my interests and artistic practice.
I discovered AREA Chicago whilst browsing online for some information about gentrification. AREA came up second in the search and I couldn’t believe my luck in finding this amazing resource. It was instant love. I wanted to know more about AREA. How can such a magnificent resource be developed for free? I was intrigued by how this project had begun in creating potential for revolutionary actions within the communities of Chicago.
I knew AREA Chicago was indeed about Chicago! But that didn’t faze my interest in the issues and projects happening regardless of the fact that I lived in a different country. Chicago for me was an exemplary example of the post-industrial city which struggles and triumphs with its second city status.
The issues raised in AREA that are current in Chicago can be echoed throughout similar landscapes, allowing AREA readers across the globe to be continuously inspired to be the change that we want to see in the world. I echo Gregory Sholette’s letter of support when I agree that the resources that this project makes available to me are extremely valuable. Especially, as someone who is not based in Chicago, I find AREA imperative to expanding my horizons.
It is exactly the love, the hope, the vision and community that exists throughout the pages of AREA that made me want to come to Chicago and experience AREA Chicago for myself. Writing this letter of support is the very least that I could do to show how grateful I am in being able to have had the opportunity to work with the AREA Family as an intern in the Fall of 2009. Having had some time now to reflect on my experience I feel like I can only continuously praise how the organization is constructed and developed over the past 5 years.
This development is vital because the voice of locality is consistently in conversation with wider global issues in similar post-industrial cities, which is integral to the success and relevance of AREA to Chicago and it’s wide audience. The use of the internet as a resource and an archive should be congratulated, and the success of such a resource should be kept in mind when changing the format to a more active blog-style website (something AREA was planing to do while I visited in 2009). Despite the fear of loss of iconicity with upgrading from the current website, the interest in upgrading to a more blog-style site would help to enhance an on going global conversation. I feel like this is a natural evolution to represent the next 5 years of AREA. This evolution would then be able to facilitate more focuses for interns when finding or writing about news issues that relate to articles in AREA.
I would like to express my support for widening AREA’s reach in surrounding MidWest sites, specifically Sam Barnett’s quest to have an “AREA Region” edition, whilst having release parties in Madison and other surrounding locations of Illinois as a goal over the next few months, especially in relation to issue 9.
Being involved in the AREA organization has taught me more about my own area of practice and field than just reading about it.
A question that comes to mind often is ultimately can we have practices of genuine social change consequence? AREA has taught me that this is indeed possible through a myriad selection of various structures, from horizontal management, to an equal distribution of work, and roles from people whom are knowledgeable in their chosen field. It was an amazing experience seeing first hand just how AREA really genuinely supports people’s lives throughout Chicago.
AREA demonstrated that they have evolved the structures of old collectives and activist strategies in favor of a more responsive, expandable and adaptive notion of collectivity geared towards action. This can be seen through the events created and methods they use in managing their voluntary organization.
My time at AREA only gets better the more I think or write about it and I would give my 100% support of any endeavour that AREA creates.
I would like to say thank you to everyone at AREA who helped me to feel at ease in Chicago, and allowed me learn from you all. I believe that everyone involved in AREA are caring and giving people, and I am honoured that I had the opportunity to work and learn with you all. You all deserve an amazing 2010!
Thank you AREA! To your next 5 years! Yeah!!
-Sarah Smizz (Sheffield, England)
