Chicago's history is one of intersecting ways of being, trade routes, migratory patters and capital flows. How is Chicago built and transformed at intersections? What happens at the crossing of streets, trajectories, political interests? How do we each occupy intersecting positions and histories? How do social movements address the intersections of local, regional and global forces? How do far away places and economies intersect within local situations? How do various scales and temporalities intersect in what we call here and now?
"Intersections" refers to places or moments in which separate realities cut across each other. More than just overlapping or coming together, "intersecting" suggests both joining and disrupting. We are inviting a broad approach to the theme. For example, contributions could focus on specific street intersections. What histories, boundaries, people and practices come together at 16th and Lawndale; 47th and King Drive; Western and Devon; 71st and South Shore Drive; 18th, Blue Island and Loomis; or Jackson and LaSalle? Contributions could also take up an intersection of issues: poverty and pollution (the economic justice movement); black liberation and sexual freedom; neighborhood bars at the intersection of community organizing and addiction; “family values” and the threat of deportation in immigrant communities; education and surveillance; public space and private money; the Occupy movement and existing forms of occupation; the local and the global; love and revolution.
Generally, contributions should focus on practices in and around Chicago. How are people joining together to explore, re-imagine and create change?
AREA is primarily committed to local practices and knowledges, and includes articles, interviews, and photos about the current activities of organizations and collective projects. We also welcome other formats: creative writing, analysis, graphic text+image contributions, glossaries or timelines, visual or media-based. We work with our contributors and assist them in finding formats and possibilities for sharing their work, in the print publication, through our website and in our event series. Previous publication experience is not necessary.
Please send us a brief (100 word) description of how your work is related to the theme or a topic you would like to develop as an article. Final AREA articles usually average around 1,200 - 1,400 words.
intersections@areachicago.org
First round of proposals is due January 30. We will contact you within three weeks to discuss your ideas.
AREA News
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Call for proposals: AREA #12
by AREA | Published Dec. 16, 2011 -
5th Annual Wants & Needs Auction to benefit AREA Chicago!!
by AREA | Published Nov. 14, 2011Come party & support AREA Chicago and help us fund future projects, grassroots style!
December 3rd, 8:00pm – 12:00am
Rumble Arts Center, 3413 W North Avenue — an accessible space
$10 suggested donation
At 9:30 p.m. there will be a live Wants and Needs Auction of Skills, Resources, and Adventures donated by AREA friends, contributors and advisers. Check out a sneak preview of the items up for auction!Dancing to follow With DJ Dime and Dookie Blaster from People's DJs!!! People's DJs are known bringing some of the best beats & rhymes and spinning some of the funkiest grooves in Chicago.
****Bids for the Auction will start as low as $10.****
We can accept cash, check or credit card on site. Proceeds from AREA’s Wants and Needs Party will benefit AREA's forthcoming, Issue #12, as well as ongoing mapping and print projects.
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AREA Chicago supports the work of people and organizations building a socially just city. AREA actively gathers, produces, and shares knowledge about local culture and politics. Its newspaper, website, and events create relationships and sustain community through art, research, education, and activism.
This year, in collaboration with Insight Arts.
Insight Arts is a contemporary arts organization dedicated to increasing access to cultural work that supports progressive social change. They organize around 3 core values:
1. Access to information, education and art is a basic human right.
2. Meaningful social change is dependent on the creation of cooperative social and political structures.
3. Time for contemplation and analysis is crucial to community and individual empowerment.
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Notes for a People’s Atlas: People Making Maps of Their Cities
by AREA | Published Oct. 27, 2011The Notes for a People’s Atlas Book Release Party and Reception will be held at the new DePaul Art Museum (935 W. Fullerton, Chicago IL 60614)Thursday November 10th, 2011 from 6:30-8:30pm
Sponsored by DePaul University Department of Geography, DePaul University Department of Art, Media and Design and AREA-Chicago.
Notes for a People’s Atlas is a multi-city community mapping project that started in Chicago in 2005 and has since expanded to a number of cities ranging from Zagreb (Croatia) to Greencastle, Indiana (USA). The project was initiated by AREA-Chicago, a magazine about art, research, education and activism in Chicago. The book and a website (peoplesatlas.com) document this project by presenting the maps collected in each city along with commentary by leading thinkers dealing with art, urban space, cartography and definitions of place.
Published by AREA Chicago
Featuring Mapping Projects from: Chicago, IL; Zagreb, Croatia; Syracuse, NY; Greencastle, IN; Portland, OR; Granada, Spain; Waterville, ME; Chisinau, Moldova; New York City, NY; Detroit, MI; Boston, MA; Pilsen; Chicago; Santiago, Chile; London, ON, Canada; Sherbrooke, QC, Canada; Ukraine (Uzhgorod, Donetsk, Kherson, Simferopol, Vinnytsia); Gary, IN; and Valparasio, Chile.
Featuring Contributions by Samuel Barnett, Euan Hague, Jayne Hileman, Daniel Tucker and Rebecca Zorach
The website http://peoplesatlas.com/ will house the Notes for a People’s Atlas archives
