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This article was developed in late 1996 for issue 12 ofHyphen magazine, a multi-arts and literary journal which waspublished two to three times per year in Chicago. Hyphen Publishing beganits life on the campus ofColumbia College Chicago in 1991 as a student-oriented operation. It was founded by Kimberly Bagwill and Eduardo Cruz Eusebio. Hyphenmagazine continued to be published until the end of 1996 when, due to financial duress, production anddistribution difficulties, it ceased. In the dozen or so issues which constituted Hyphen's life, the magazinematured from an occasional journal of friends' artworks and poems to asophisticated and critically aware magazine of poetry, performance art,new media arts, photography, and fiction. Hyphen's credo throughout itslifetime was to offer the best in locally (Chicago area) and nationallysignificant art in an accessible and intelligent format which thelayperson could understand. That goal was fully realized in Hyphen'sfinal issues under the editorial stewardship of Mark Ingebretsen. While Hyphen may have been challenged by controversy, it never backed down. Issue 11 featured performance artist Ron Athey and photographer AndresSerrano, twofamous artists blacklisted by the National Endowment of the Arts during the Reagan-Bush years. The Athey interview was conducted by photoartistBarbara de Genevieve who was herself blacklisted by the NEA. Other issuesfeatured: a round-table of "page" poets, those whose artisticoutput was most focussed on publishing, versus "stage" poets,principally performance-oriented, dramatic or charismatic poets of theslam movement; photography from Sarajevo showing the hunger for cultureduring the Bosnian Civil War; an intimate interview with Sandra Cisneros;coverage of the Last Poets, cyber critic Mark Amerika, and Negativland'srun-in with the law over sampling U2 and Casey Kasim; the breakthrough of poetryinto network television through Bob Holman's "United States ofPoetry"; and much, much more. If you would like to find out more about Hyphen, or simply would like topurchase a back issue, please write to |
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