Combahee’s Radical Call: Zine

For Combahee’s Radical Call, designer Zoë Pulley has created a free zine of the complete annotated text of the first published version of the 1977 Combahee River Collective Statement. The aim of this commission is first and foremost to ensure that the radical call and visionary ideas of the statement’s co-authors–including Demita Frazier and sisters Barbara and Beverly Smith–would be freely available to those across Boston eager to reference this influential document. It is also an opportunity for a sharp-eyed designer to highlight and visually reframe these original words in our 2021 present. The printed zine unfolds into a poster format with key call-out quotes from this powerful text.

As of February 9, copies of the zine will be accessible both in print (~500 newsprint takeaways will be available –one per person– from a box on the BCA Plaza) and as a downloadable pdf. 

The PDF may be accessed for download HERE.

 

About the Featured Artist:

Zoë Pulley is currently a Presidential Fellow pursuing an MFA in Graphic Design at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. Motivated to preserve generational narratives of black experiences through print, textiles and other media, and to foster more design spaces that elevate black and brown people, Pulley pursues ongoing projects including the jewelry line GRAN SANS (inspired by her grandmother Sandra) and the collaborative open-call project www.blackjoyarchive.com, whose print publications have funded Black liberation organizations. 

Follow her at @zpulley and www.zoepulley.com

 

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Combahee’s Radical Call is a series of public installations that recenter the vital legacy of Black feminism(s), archives and the written word in Boston. The project was inspired by and developed in direct dialogue with Demita Frazier, co-founder of Boston’s Combahee River Collective, a group of Radical, Socialist, Black Feminists and Lesbians active in community organizing and publishing in Boston between 1974-80. In that spirit, through June 2021, a broad range of Black Femme/Feminist artists will be commissioned to occupy public spaces with installations, design, and digital resources. Their works will serve to amplify the voices (and counter the erasure) of Black Femme cultural leaders across Boston’s neighborhoods. 

Combahee’s Radical Call: Black Feminisms (re)Awaken Boston is organized by co-curators Arielle Gray, Cierra Peters and Jen Mergel. The project was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Public Art for Spatial Justice Program, with funding from The Barr Foundation. This project is also supported by grants from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation and the Krupp Family Foundation funds to the Curatorial Network Accelerator of Boston.