Guide to Kulchur at SPACES

Spearheaded by Lyz Bly, Ph.D. and RA Washington, Guide to Kulchur is a book, magazine, and periodicals shop that doubles as a co-op workshop for fanzines (zines), hand-made books, small publications, chap books, and other printed ephemera. In addition to the physical space and in collaboration with venues across the city, we host writers, artists, public and academic intellectuals to discuss zines, cooperative creative processes and spaces, art books, and the theories/new innovations emerging around the evolution and revolution of the printed word.

Guide to Kulchur offers multilingual editions of selected publications and a wide array of periodicals and zines on topics ranging from art and literature to identity politics and social justice. We stock an extensive used book section, and look for definitive editions, and iconic covers. We consider readers to be taste-makers, and we understand that if not for the love of book as object our store, and independents like it would not exist in the age of the Nook, and other E-Readers. Our new books/publications center on texts from small presses who are publishing the newest voices in literature, history, critical theory, philosophy, and identity politics. Key objectives of our mission are to give special consideration to new and young writers, publishers, and publications that are centered on alternative perspectives and intellectual pursuits and to connect our patrons with authors and thinkers that they would not find on the shelves of corporate booksellers like Barnes and Noble. Shelves are not simply stocked, they are curated and organized around art and literary movements, philosophical and theoretical concepts, and the stories and histories of groups and individuals who counter dominant ideas, trends, and political agendas.

For Reading CLE, we have selected some of the finest small presses to be displayed. Everything from handmade art books, to poetry/identity zines. Over 20 small presses are represented for this SPACES exhibit.

READING CLE

Presses represented

IZEN Press (Athens, OH)

Green Panda Press (Cleveland Heights)

Crisis Chronicles Press (Cleveland)

HydeOut Press (Cleveland)

Bottle Of Smoke Fine Letterpress (Dover, DE)

NIght Ballet Press (Elyria)

Lead Graffiti (Newark, DE)

HamburgerEYES Photography Collective (Los Angeles, CA)

Language Foundry (New Orleans, LA)

Poets Haven (Canton, OH)

Shiner Comics (Cleveland, Ohio)

Burning River Press (Cleveland, Ohio)

SparkleStreet Press (New York, NY)

DORIS Press (Athens, OH)

Sweet Candy Distro (Olympia, WA)

Psychiana Magazine (New York, NY)

Protext Press (Cleveland, OH)

Earthman's Press (Cleveland, OH)

Plus selections from The Guide To Kulchur Zine Archive, including Jim Lang's Bag-O-Zines from 1970 on, and CLeveland's infamous Artcrimes, curated and edited by Steven B. Smith

On view at SPACES Nov 15, 2013- Jan 17, 2014

Karen Lillis Interview
Here's a conversation with Karen Lillis about the Guide To Kulchur missio : http://karenslibraryblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/indie-bookstore-of-month-guide-to.html

by RA Washington