The past twenty years have seen the near-complete disappearance of feminist- and queer-oriented bookstores in Canada, echoing the broader decline of independent, brick-and-mortar booksellers across North America. Ghost Launch (www.GhostLaunch.ca) is an online project that seeks to remember and reanimate these once-vital nexuses of community and culture.
Produced in conjunction with MY MONUMENT, the forthcoming exhibition at The University of Winnipeg’s Gallery 1C03 by cam bush, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Roewan Crowe, and Paul Robles, Ghost Launch is conceived of as an unstructured archive and “living monument.” The website will serve as a space to remember and reflect on vanished bookstores and as a platform for the virtual “launch” of works that continue to be made in their absence.
Ghost Launch is currently seeking submissions of personal accounts, historical ephemera, writing, and art that record, remember, or respond to feminist and queer bookstores that no longer exist.
Submissions may include (but are not restricted to) the following:
- Written and oral histories, personal recollections, and reflections
- Photographs taken at now-closed bookstores or bookstore events
- Ephemera and documents (newspaper clippings, event flyers, handbills, buttons, stickers, etc.)
- Artwork, poetry, and writing that reflects on or relates to a particular bookstore or to vanished bookstores generally
Ghost Launch welcomes submissions from those who might never have set foot in a feminist/queer bookstore (or even had the chance to). Responses to the absence of such spaces are strongly encouraged, as are fictional or fictionalized accounts and documents.
Submissions may consist of text, images, video or audio files, or links to hosted media (YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.) and can be uploaded using the online form at http://www.ghostlaunch.ca. Submissions may also be emailed as attachments or file-sharing links to ghostlaunch@gmail.com. Please indicate if you would prefer to have your submission published anonymously. Audio files can only be accepted via email at this time. Electronic submissions only.
Throughout the year, the website will also feature a variety of projects by feminist- and queer-identified artists, writers, performers, and activists. If you have a work (a book, zine, chapbook, play, performance, visual art, etc.) to “launch,” please contact Ghost Launch.
Deadline for submissions: March 6, 2014.
The production of Ghost Launch is made possible thanks to funding from the Winnipeg Arts Council and with support from Gallery 1C03 and the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies at The University of Winnipeg.
More information:
Jennifer Gibson, Director/Curator, Gallery 1C03
The University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9
Ph: 204-786-9253
E: j.gibson@uwinnipeg.ca
