We've seen the blossoms, the leaves budding on trees and birds frolicking about, but the final harbinger of spring for the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender community is still a few weeks off. It is the annual edition of Push magazine.
The subtitle on Push is "Queer Feminist Subversions." Using the term "queer" rather than lesbian allows the magazine to be broader and more inclusive according to members of the collective that steers, edits and publishes the magazine. As for subversion, well....
"I think we all have our own ideas what we are subverting," said Jennie Goode, one of the collective's founding members."
"We are trying to encourage dialogue," offered Christine Olah, another founding member. "Challenges may be a better word than subversive."
"Subverting by widening what is available to people to read," suggested member Karina Luboff. "Reflecting another segment of society."
All three women are between 24 and 35, as are most of the collective members (usually around a dozen, though the personnel and numbers change with each annual issue). None of them have organizational titles. All are Anglo and said it has been a goal, but difficult, to attract ethnic minorities to help produce the magazine.
The magazine began in May 1999, and this year's offering will be issue No. 8. The magazine is a pleasingly eclectic mix of essays, short stories and poetry. Sometimes there is fiction, but mostly not. The content depends on what writers submit.
Last spring's edition focused on home: traumas, memories, changes, even where to find a friendly restroom far from home. This spring the topic is food - its production, preparation, consumption and politics. Is food healthy or sexy, what impact does it have on relationships?
"How crazy were we?" asked Olah. "We put out the first issue of this magazine in less than five months." She and Goode recalled that one of the hardest jobs on that first issue was coming up with a name. They were looking for something that would be short, one word, that showed activity and an inclination to test boundaries. The choice, Push, is contained in a logo that shows several figures shoving the name.
The intent of the magazine was to fill a niche they saw for a feminist magazine with a literary, educational and political message.
Goode said the original subversion was to feature marginalized voices, points of view that were not often heard. She said there is not a specific political agenda, but a forum to air many viewpoints.
"We're just one piece of the much larger independent media," Goode said.
The editorial direction of the magazine is left-leaning and progressive.
"We're not going to run an issue saying we love George Bush, that's for sure," Goode added, inspiring head-nodding laughter around the room.
A "Letter from the Editors" in last spring's issue explaining the magazine's viewpoint strikes many points that would be at home in any civil rights publication:
"We write this as activists living in Seattle, a city where it is illegal to sit on the sidewalk, where the police can ban a person from the public parks for any reason, where for the greater part of the last decade posters were banned from public utility poles (no free advertising!). Each of us can attest that the police, funded by our tax dollars, were not protecting us during the [World Trade Organization protests] and the protests against the bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq; they were protecting businesses - merchandise and corporations, not citizens."
It costs between $2,500 and $3,000 to publish each issue. That money has been raised by benefit events during the year, which is why the magazine only comes out annually. There is very little advertising in the magazine, which is printed inexpensively in black and white on high-quality newsprint.
Since the last edition the collective has placed itself under the umbrella of Gay Community Social Services, a non-profit organization that will allow the magazine to accept tax deductible donations and do more effective fund raisers.
"That way we can stay small and local and hot have a board [of directors] and all of that ourselves," Olah said.
The collective is always looking for new members to help with the magazine. Committees include magazine layout, copy editing, editorial content, fundraising and outreach. The collective also has a submission coordinator, who accepts the material and carefully expunges the names of the writers before passing it on to the editorial committee. The committee can then decide, without bias or favoritism toward the author, what they wish to appear in Push.
The 3,000 copies of the magazine are distributed, free, in many places around Capitol Hill, as well as the University District, Fremont, Columbia City and even a few to Vancouver, B.C., and Portland. Look for it in gathering places (bookstores, coffee shops etc.) that distribute free publications.
Material has already been selected for this year's edition, but manuscripts are always welcome, as are helping hands. To contact the collective go to the Push Web site, www. pushmagazine.org, or e-mail push@ technodyke.com.
Freelance writer Korte Brueckmann lives on Capitol Hill and can be reached at editor@ capitolhilltimes.com.
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