Guides: The Underground Press @ Archives &amp; Special Collections: Radical Press

Radical Publications

Radical Publications
This document provides a complete listing of the radical publications contained in the Department of Special Collections.

Local Publications

Pittsburgh Fair Witness

1970-1973
Published by "The Commune", Pittsburgh, PA
The title refers to the novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Radical counterculture underground newspaper focusing on antiwar activism, the New Left, drugs, and the occult

Pittsburgh Point

1966-1970
Published by The Point Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, PA
Radical local newspaper focusing on political news, arts, and politics

Additional Resources

Pittsburgh Zine Fair
In 2011, participants of the Feminist Zine Symposium at the Carnegie Library reached out to local indie cartoonists to organize a Pittsburgh-based event to promote zines and zinemakers. Since its debut at Artist Image Resource in 2011, the PZF has attracted a diverse group of artists, writers and activists from across the region whose content varies but the format remains the same: the zine.

The Radical Press

The Radical Press is perhaps the most diverse component of this collection. These publications vary dramatically in terms of the geography of their distribution, the demographics of their audiences, and their thematic areas of interest. There are small local "rags" and large newspapers with international readerships. There are papers catering more generally to the American counterculture and there are papers focusing on specific groups or organizations, such as the Black Panther Party or the Prisoners' Union. The authors of these papers focus on a whole range of issues from pacifism to violent uprising and from rock 'n' roll to meditation. The one thing that unites all of these papers, however, is a fierce commitment to radical social change with the intention of creating equality for all.

See tumblr posts about this collection below.

Cover of Issue 48 of The Pittsburgh Fair Witness

Cover of Vol. XX No. 1 issue of The Black Panther

Cover of Vol. 6 No. 2 issue of The East Village Other

Secondary Sources

Smoking Typewriters by John McMillian
Publication Date: 2011-02-17
Following the lead of papers like the Los Angeles Free Press, the East Village Other, and the Berkeley Barb, young people across the country launched hundreds of mimeographed pamphlets and flyers, small press magazines, and underground newspapers. Though not technically illegal, these papers were often genuinely subversive, and many of those who produced and sold them became targets of harassment from local and federal authorities. McMillian pays special attention to the ways underground newspapers fostered a sense of community and played a vital role in shaping the New Left's highly democratic "movement culture."
Power to the People by Geoff Kaplan
Publication Date: 2013-05-15
Though we think of the 1960s and the early '70s as a time of radical social, cultural, and political upheaval, we tend to picture the action as happening on campuses and in the streets. Yet the rise of the underground newspaper was equally daring and original. From the psychedelic pages of the Oracle, Haight-Ashbury's paper of choice, to the fiery editorials of the Black Panther Party Paper, these papers were remarkable for their editors' fervent belief in freedom of expression and their DIY philosophy. They were also extraordinary for their graphic innovations. Experimental typography and wildly inventive layouts reflect an alternative media culture as much informed by the space age, television, and socialism as it was by the great trinity of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Power to the People is not just a major compendium of art from the '60s and '70s--it showcases how the radical media graphically fashioned the image of a countercultural revolution that still resounds to this day.

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

The Underground Press @ Archives & Special Collections: Radical Press

Radical Publications

Local Publications

Additional Resources

The Radical Press

Secondary Sources