Critics’ Picks: “Finally Got The News: The Printed Legacy of the US Radical Left, 1970–1979”
by Tyler Curtis
Between military strikes in Yemen and a spike in auto-plant injuries in Alabama, the modern world persists in its technological brutality. The good news? It may have created the tools for its own undoing long ago. The current exhibition here shines a light on a broad selection of historical pamphlets, newsletters, and posters—borrowed from the archive of historian Brad Duncan—where the American Left demanded more from the postwar social contract or called to utterly reconfigure it.
Critics’ Picks: “Finally Got The News: The Printed Legacy of the US Radical Left, 1970–1979”
by Tyler Curtis
Between military strikes in Yemen and a spike in auto-plant injuries in Alabama, the modern world persists in its technological brutality. The good news? It may have created the tools for its own undoing long ago. The current exhibition here shines a light on a broad selection of historical pamphlets, newsletters, and posters—borrowed from the archive of historian Brad Duncan—where the American Left demanded more from the postwar social contract or called to utterly reconfigure it.
“We did not go in there with the notion that we have all the answers to lead the working class, that we are the revolutionary leadership…the people who already understood the workplace, who understood the industry, who understood the union and its history were very often the rank and file workers who had been there for a long time.” – Dan La Botz
We’ve started hosting a series of Radical Playdates at Interference Archive — we would love to have you come join us! We also realize that not everyone can make it to Gowanus, and so we wanted to share some resources that we’ve created. Download our list of radical kids books, as well as a short list of non-“anglopopmusic” + political songs kids like.
“There were people in the buildings who modeled themselves after homesteaders and very much wanted to become homeowners, wanted the approval of the city, wanted to act respectable–and there were other people who were doing this as a critique of private property. There were people who were fixing up their space as if it was going to be their family home for generations, and there were people who just needed a temporary place to stay and were making the best of it.” – Amy Starecheski
“There were people in the buildings who modeled themselves after homesteaders and very much wanted to become homeowners, wanted the approval of the city, wanted to act respectable–and there were other people who were doing this as a critique of private property. There were people who were fixing up their space as if it was going to be their family home for generations, and there were people who just needed a temporary place to stay and were making the best of it.” – Amy Starecheski
Saturday, May 6, 1pm
Join curators of our current exhibition, Finally Got The News: The Printed Legacy of the U.S. Radical Left, 1970-1979, for a conversation about the material in this exhibition and the movements represented.
Finally Got the News uncovers the hidden legacy of the radical left of the 1970s, a decade when vibrant social movements challenged racism, imperialism, patriarchy and capitalism itself. It uses original printed materials—from pamphlets to posters, flyers to record albums—to tell this politically rich and little-known story.