"Queer Acts of Reading and Writing"
OA literature & design to celebrate Pride, queer legacies, observing Juneteenth with Harriet Jacobs, & more.
Happy Pride! This month, we’re reflecting on the long history and crucial present forged by queer writers, designers, and activists. Read on for just a few examples of work that is available online for everyone.
“The time is coming when man's love for man and woman's love for woman will be studied and understood as it never has been in the past. Books touching on this subject will not be censored.”
In 1930, a small Chicago press (that mostly put out books about typography and printing) published The Stone Wall by Mary Casal (the pseudonym of Ruth Fuller Field). Casal was born at the end of the Civil War, and her autobiography presents a rare, frank account of a fascinating and full queer life in late-19th/early-20th century America. Writing in her mid-sixties, she reflects on her sexual awakenings, her romances, and the professional and social situations she created for herself outside the accepted boundaries of “normal” womanhood. The full digitized text is available at the Internet Archive, and an excerpt with an accompanying introduction, timeline, and bibliography is at OutHistory.
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Queer.Archive.Work, a library, publishing studio, and residency based in Rhode Island, shares free pdf scans of its publications. Download and explore compilations like resting reader, which pulls together texts and images from books in the org’s physical library, and Queer Matters, a collaboratively written and designed record of community and creation at QAW.
Learn more about queer histories while simultaneously exploring beautiful open source fonts thanks to the work of Nat Pyper. Pyper uses “fonts as time machines” to take us back to the projects of the Lesbian Alliance of St. Louis in the 1970s (including their feminist magazine MOONSTORM), the organizing work of Ernestine Eckstein, and more.
“As you read this book, I hope you delight in the feast of the many-faced gods, the many-gendered bodies, the many lovers, the many loves, and the many, many worlds. Notice how each of these manys is constituted by relationships.”
The(y)ology: Mythopoetics for Queer/Trans Liberation by Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus is a new title in punctum books’ open access catalog. punctum describes the text as “a manifesto for artists, teachers, theologians, clergy, and activists looking for ways to resist rigid paradigms of gender, sexuality, self, and the sacred.” You can buy a print copy or download a digital copy for free.
Cita Canon Spotlight
Celebrating writers, designers, and artists from the feminist canon.
![Image: A portrait of Sor Juana before she became a nun. Her long dark hair is pulled back loosely with red ribbons. She wears an elaborate red and gold dress and holds a book in her hand. Her other hand is open and gesturing forward. The logo for the Women’s Action Committee, featuring a photograph of a closeup eye with a circle of text around it that reads “WAC IS WATCHING WOMEN TAKE ACTION” Image: A portrait of Sor Juana before she became a nun. Her long dark hair is pulled back loosely with red ribbons. She wears an elaborate red and gold dress and holds a book in her hand. Her other hand is open and gesturing forward. The logo for the Women’s Action Committee, featuring a photograph of a closeup eye with a circle of text around it that reads “WAC IS WATCHING WOMEN TAKE ACTION”](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1bbefd97-f3f2-498e-9d05-b1b9ed694b21_1995x1423.png)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a Mexican scholar and poet who became a nun to avoid marriage. She wrote love poems addressed to women and amassed fame for her vast knowledge and literary talent. In response to condemnations from religious officials, she penned an essay many consider to be one of the first feminist manifestos: “Reply to Sister Philotea/Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz (1691).” After centuries of neglect, new interest in her life and work was sparked in the 20th century, situating Sor Juana as an icon to many involved in feminist, queer, decolonial, and Chicana movements. [Read U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón on Sor Juana (includes a poem Limón translated alongside the original).]
American artist and designer Marlene McCarty was a founding member of the collective Gran Fury, which began serving as “guerrilla graphic designers” for ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in 1988. She co-founded the multidisciplinary design studio Bureau in 1989, and her text paintings and drawings have been exhibited worldwide. As a title designer, she’s worked with directors Kelly Reichart, Todd Haynes, and many more. She also designed the logo for the Women’s Action Coalition (WAC), a feminist direct action alliance that stemmed from Clarence Thomas’ confirmation. [Gran Fury’s work is in the public domain.]
Bonus: Vernon Lee (née Violet Paget) was known for suspenseful stories and writing on aesthetics, including The Beautiful, which is in Cita’s catalog. The cover for our edition was designed by Cita Press founder Juliana Castron Varón, herself the author of a book on intersections between beauty, art, and feelings (Papel sensible).
Cita news, events, & more
Cita Press will be at the San Francisco Art Book Fair (July 13-16)! Stop by booth Z73 to chat and pick up zines and merch — including print versions of a couple of our books! We’ll also be giving a talk on Friday afternoon. [More details in next month’s newsletter/soon on social media.]
This newsletter is going out just after Juneteenth, a federal holiday in the US celebrating the end of the institution of slavery. It is observed on the anniversary of an 1865 order in Texas that freed enslaved people — over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, which details her life under and escape from slavery, was published in 1861. In its preface, the author describes her intention “to add my testimony … to convince the people of the Free States what Slavery really is.” [Cita’s edition (foreword by Dr. Christy Hyman; cover by Thaïs Jacoponi).]
![Image: The book cover for Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacoobs. Text: “Engaging with her writing allows us to celebrate how, by telling the story of her life, Harriet Jacobs asserted victory over the institution of slavery…” –Dr. Christy Hyman, on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Image: The book cover for Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacoobs. Text: “Engaging with her writing allows us to celebrate how, by telling the story of her life, Harriet Jacobs asserted victory over the institution of slavery…” –Dr. Christy Hyman, on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F70d3227c-34e0-4f01-b8ab-7cadb2aa1fb1_2000x2000.png)
Thank you for reading! Please send any ideas, announcements you’d like us to share, and nominations for future Cita Canon candidates to us via citabooks@gmail.com. <3 Jessi & Juli