The Alternatives

• 1974-1975
• Published by the Staff of the Alternative Education Resource and Development Center, Pittsburgh, PA
• Contained information regarding the development of and support for alternative education programs.
• Its articles featured Penn Circle High School prominently

Health Writes!

• 1972
• Published by the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Pittsburgh Chapter, Pittsburgh, PA
• Written in a zine-style, it included both local and national content and aimed to involve healthcare consumers in the process of advocating for system-level change

One critical component of the American counterculture movement of the 60s and 70s was a wave of activism occurring within various professional spheres.  Central to this effort were the development of radical approaches to education, healthcare, and psychotherapy.  The Alternative Professional Press created a number of papers aimed at helping various professionals within these fields to radicalize their practice.  This often involved breaking down the imagined divisions between schooling, therapy, or healthcare and social or political change.  In so doing, these papers opened up new spaces for activism within the professional sphere. 

See tumblr posts about this collection below.