ISSUE 20 // a place where individuals become a whole - Japanese Tea and Everybody's Rituals

SPRING 2024

With Culture Push, I have been researching the social context and function of the community gathering aspect of the Japanese Tea culture as a ritual. 

In this issue, I present an Overview of the Japanese Tea Ritual, the Survey Japanese Tea and Ritual Room Questionnaire that I conducted with an anonymous community about personal rituals, and an interview with the Japanese Tea Master, Yoshitsugu Nagano. 

- Maho Ogawa

ISSUE 19 // HEIRLOOMS

FALL 2023

How do we live with what we inherit? What is considered hereditary? What defines a lineage, and is it always bound by blood? By disposition? By tragedy? Five artists that I love and care about alongside myself were asked to submit a manifestation of the things passed down to us, what we want to honor as a relic, and what we navigate as the archivists of the generations before us.

— Dena Igusti

ISSUE 18 // A GUIDE TO BUILDING A HYPERLOCAL HISTORY

SPRING 2023

Artists and Artisans represent carriers of important cultural knowledge. The project explores concepts of history- making, knowledge sharing, and creative storytelling. Art/thentic Education creates enrichment and after school programs and learning materials for children and youth aged 10-17 that empowers students to express, deeply understand, and value their and others' unique contributions to the planet. We increase community connections between local artists, entrepreneurs, and students through exhibits, events, and other learning adventures.

— Khadijah McCaskill

ISSUE 17 // THE BREATH NEEDED TO SUMMON SURRENDER

Winter 2022

I have been wondering what PUSH/PULL means to me–what do I push and what do I pull, what I surrender, what I resist. In 2022, I finally gave up on the irrationality of dealing with substance use disorders and depression on my own. I was arriving at a place where my individual sanctuary (body, mind, soul) and my communal sanctuary (family, friends, guides) were deteriorating. Throughout this edition, you are going to find a cyclical elevation of my journey towards release and recovery.

You will find works by Julia Justo, Vanessa Rappa, Irwin Dyson and Dennis RedMoon Darkeem. I would also like to thank everyone who worked in Haus of Dust, and who have made my journey possible, somehow.

— Gabriel Torres

ISSUE 16 // EMBODIED HEALING

SPRING 2022

The artist in me wanted to create reflective audio and visual experiences, where Black women could sit, bask and consider themselves as beings firstly, but also as mamas, aunties, daughters, lovers and sistren. Most importantly I wanted women to hone in on their particular needs, wants, desires, and see themselves as women worthy of love, respect, dignity.  As women filled with the unfiltered capacity to be authors of their own prose.  And as women entitled to breathe, replenish, and renew.

This edition of PUSH/PULL is an offering. I offer you a moment, or moments, to center you.  You love on you. You pamper you. You heal you. You roll around your body, breathing new fresh air amidst sketching that body up, down, side-to,side, all the way around. To cover that body with lavender creams and eucalyptus oils. Fuel that body with citrus waters and bright leafy greens. Talk sweetly and kindly to that body. And when needed, often hopefully, lay that body down.  Calm that body and let those treatments sink into that body.  

— Bianca Mońa

ISSUE 15 // NEVER NOT BROKEN

Boa’s Repair Shop is a project about relationships: among ideas, emotions and objects; self, other and community; a sense of wholeness, brokenness and the unsteady territory of transformation. On the most basic level, this project draws groups of strangers together to experience how imagination and physical being are braided together and rooted into the diversity of experiences that constitute our collective life-world of Earth. 

In this issue of PUSH/PULL, I sought to deepen my relationship with a handful of inspiring members of my community including Guadalupe Garcia (art historian, curator and founder of The Ant Project), Julian Watkins MD (health equity advisor at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Center for Health Equity and member of the city’s COVID-19 taskforce) and artists Julian Louis Phillips and Cody Herrmann, who each practice a mix of sculpture, performance, and social engagement, and happen to be partners. I was curious to hear about how their distinct art practices are influenced by their relationship. 

— Alexandra Hammond, The Editor

Issue 14 // FLOWS N FIGURATIONS

During the course of 2020 and 2021, amidst the stress of a pandemic, uprisings, housing insecurity, gender violence, and inclement weather Bl3ssing Oshun Ra took trips to the Bronx River, looking for some place to cope. Weaving together Blues based stories and songs, they would talk about dreams, science, radical struggle, and ancestral beliefs while on these trips. The following is a handful of poems themed around a speculative language called “the Undulatrix.” This speculative language provides a backdrop to many of the stories and songs Bl3ssing shared at the Bronx River. 

Issue 13 // trans family archives

In organizing this issue, I reached out to friends, artists, social workers, and others I’ve met along the way who are doing intergenerational work in the community, are making work around trans-ness and time, or hold critiques around the systems in place meant to serve LGBTQ+ folks who are aging.  I asked them to speak to their own experiences of trans-ness and time.  How can we trace the networks running through our experience, creating the impediments to our mutual understanding or togetherness?  If we are able to outline them, name them, face them, is there then a way out, around, or through? Please enjoy.

Issue 12 // Mamatropolis

Mamatropolis was born out of a desire to explore the radical possibilities of what could happen if you built community amongst birthing people from different backgrounds across New York City. It was envisioned as an initiative that would bring people together through in person discussions and performances.
When a global pandemic hit, this project needed to be reimagined, and Mamatropolis Lifeline was reborn as a mutual aid initiative for parents, providing small micro-grants, and connection to helpful goods and services. The challenges of being a parent at this time have taken up much digital ink, and it became clear that rising to the occasion of the moment meant providing direct support. - Samantha CC

Issue 10

Spring 2020

Associated Artist Sherese Francis asked poets and writers to offer works that explores and reflects on the sounds that inhabit local communities and memories; but also the silences and the gaps where the unheard haunt, may have yet to be acknowledged and are not given the space to be heard, or were lost in the process of a changin city? Jam Journal Sampler: Sound and Silence presents works from Southeast Queens writers Rowana Abbensetts, Christopher Smith, Bob McNeil, Keisha-Gaye Anderson, Jacqueline Herranz Brooks, Allia Abdullah-Matta and Sherese Francis highlight the parts of the city and daily life we miss or don’t engage with enough in our rush to get from one place to the next.

ISSUE 9

FALL 2019

Guest Editors and CP Associated Artists BFAMFAPhd provide a glimpse into their practice with How to Start a Pedagogy Group, a protocol from the seventh event in the series, Open Meeting for Arts Educators and Teaching Artists, and a transcription from Artist-Run Spaces, a conversation which focused on artist-run spaces and how artists create contexts for encounters with their projects that are aligned with their goals. The conversation included Linda Goode-Bryant, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Salome Asega, and was moderated by Kemi Ilesanmi.

“IF ART MAKING IS A LIFELONG PRACTICE OF SEEKING KNOWLEDGE AND PRODUCING ART IN RELATIONSHIP TO THAT KNOWLEDGE, WHY WOULDN'T WE TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT THE POLITICAL ECONOMIES OF ART EDUCATION AND ART CIRCULATION?”

ISSUE 8 //

FALL 2019

The Culture Push Staff and Fellows have compiled recipes, manifestos, interviews, and collected ideas to offer a sneak preview into our forthcoming 10th anniversary publication. Featuring the writing and thoughts of current and past Fellows, including: Adelaide Matthew Dicken & Mel McIntyre, Esther Neff, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, and Noemi Segarra & Sarah Dahnke.

ISSUE 7 //

SPRING 2019

Guest Editor and Associated Artist Christina Freeman expands on Ultraviolet Archive, her investigation on the ways that artistic freedom is limited through censorship by conducting interviews that cover three different perspectives: Srirak Plipat (Executive Director of Freemuse), Svetlana Mintcheva (Director of Programs at the National Coalition Against Censorship), and Dread Scott (an artist whose works have faced content-related censorship).

ISSUE 6 //

SPRING 2018

Guest Editors and Current Fellows, Chinatown Art Brigade members Tomie Arai and ManSee Kong, gather writing from collaborators and allies who share a deep concern for the future of Chinatowns, both locally and globally as the tides of hyper-development and real estate investments threaten to displace residents who have called these places home for decades. Each work powerfully demonstrates the need to draw connections between displaced low-income communities of color and the strength of grass-roots, community-led resistance and resilience. With contributions from Huiying Chan, Diane Wong and Mei Lum, Alina Shen, Emily Mock, the Gòngmíng Collective for Language Justice, and the Chinatown Art Brigade. English Homepage

客座編輯和唐人街藝術團隊成員Tomie Arai及ManSee Kong收集了各合作團隊及盟友對唐人街深受關注的將來的文章，包括在本地和全球過度發展及地產投資對住客們造成被逼遷的威脅。各文章都有力地發表出低收入有色社區被逼遷及草根力量，社區帶領抵抗之間的關係。Huiying Chan, Diane Wong及Mei Lum, Alina Shen, Emily Mock, 共鳴翻譯者群以及唐人街藝術團隊所貢獻。第六期（繁體）

Issue 5 //

Fall 2017

How can we understand our complex relationship with the other species who share and shape our world? This issue brings together contributions from a video and new media artist, historical marine biologist, artist collective, and three visual artists who provide unique perspectives on the importance of understanding the ways non-human animals pervade our physical and symbolic world.

With contributions from Joseph Moore, Terike Haapoja and Laura Gustafsson, Carolyn Hall, The Environmental Performance Agency, Aida Šehović, and Linnea Ryshke.

Número Cuatro //

Spring 2017

Guest Editor and current fellow, Noemí Segarra Ramírez, gathers writing from her Puerto Rican collaborators and friends that addresses individual praxis and the unique ways in which they individually and collectively question systems of cultural production in Puerto Rico. 
This issue is bilingual, with writing in both Spanish and English, reflecting the hybrid nature of Puerto Rico and the state of displacement experienced by its citizens. As Noemí says, focusing on this sense of displacement brings out a "cavilación en la ambigüedad" (a brooding in ambiguity), fertile ground for this expansive collection of writing and images.  

With contributions from Noemí Segarra Ramírez, Andrea Bauzá and Félix Rodríguez-Rosa.

ISSUE 3 //

SUMMER 2016

A selection of writing to accompany the exhibition, Artifacts & After Effects, at the Westbeth Gallery. The exhibition featured the work of past and present Fellows from the Fellowship for Utopian Practice. 

With contributions from Lise Brenner, Sarah Dahnke, Jen Kennedy & Liz Linden, and Go! Push Pops (Katie Cercone & Elisa Garcia de la Huerta).

ISSUE 1 //

Winter 2015

An introduction to our newest project, the online journal PUSH/PULL. PUSH/PULL is a platform for voices in the Culture Push community. 

With contributions from Chloë Bass, Lise Brenner, Emerald Carter, and Sarah Dahnke.