Independent Black publishing and UCL’s collecting practices

This post was written by Liz Lawes, Subject Liaison Librarian: Fine Art, History of Art, Film Studies and Collection Manager: Small Press Collections, UCL Special Collections.

UCL’s Small Press Collections, held by UCL Special Collections, are globally important holdings of independently produced and distributed literary little magazines, experimental poetry, avant-garde artists’ and countercultural publications, and supporting bibliographic and archival material.

Established in 1965 by Geoffrey Soar, then the UCL English Librarian, in response to a burgeoning international culture of self-publishing, it was one of the first institutional collections of small press publications anywhere in the world. It was developed despite the myriad challenges presented by such unpredictable, often ephemeral, and bibliographically challenging material.

The collection was intentionally global in scope from the outset with acquisitions being made from across Europe, the Commonwealth, and the United States. As a result, UCL can boast enviable holdings of mid-twentieth century titles published in all corners of the globe, including many originating from Africa and the Caribbean, alongside Black publishers located in the UK and the United States. This includes iconic African titles of the post-independence era such as Black Orpheus, an influential Nigerian literary journal founded to provide a platform for the emerging, independent, West African arts scene. It featured poetry, fiction, and visual art by African and African diaspora writers and artists alongside criticism, commentary and reviews. Black Orpheus was distributed internationally and is considered one of the most important formative influences in Modernist African literature. Transition was published in Kampala, Uganda, as an alternative to the Eurocentric publications that had dominated up to that point. It provided an opportunity for young East African writers to be published for the first time and quickly became the leading intellectual magazine of immediately post-colonial Africa.

Amongst the lesser known titles are Okike, an African journal of new writing published in Nigeria and edited by novelist, poet, and critic Chinua Achebe; Okyeame, found by the Ghana Society of Writers in 1960 as a showcase for Ghanaian poetry, including traditional oral works translated by leading contemporary poets; Busara, an influential Kenyan literary journal; and  Zuka: journal of East African creative writing, affiliated to the University of Nairobi.

The Caribbean is also well represented by titles such as Bim, a pioneering literary journal established in Barbados in the 1940s to provide an opportunity for new writers to appear in print alongside established Caribbean writers, and Savacou (Jamaica), the journal of the Caribbean Artists Movement. US titles such the Journal of Black Poetry, a San Francisco little magazine of the Black Arts era, were also acquired.

In addition to the literary serials, pamphlets, and books, Soar enhanced the collections by including contemporary underground newspapers with a political and counter-cultural emphasis.  We hold, among others, London-based titles such as Black Liberator: theoretical and discussion journal for Black revolution and Black Voice, the journal of the Black Unity and Freedom Party. Black Voice was printed in the form of a tabloid newspaper with pictures and articles documenting British and international political developments from a party perspective. Topics considered included police brutality, apartheid, and the education of African-Caribbean children in British schools. Seen alongside the literary material, these titles provide a synergistic overview of Black cultural and political activity in the second half of the twentieth century.

UCL continues to develop these collections to represent the diversity of the current independent publishing scene. Recently acquired titles include those of New York based BlackMass, an independent press publishing material by Black artists and cultural producers that combines archival photographs and found print material with poetry and jazz music, the Moor’s Head Press On the Blackness of BLACKNUSS pamphlet series, and Blackity: black black black, a poetry zine by queer Black authors published by Cassandra Press.

If you have any suggestions for further additions to the collections, please get in touch!

 

This blog post is the second instalment in the UCL Special Collection Black History Month series exploring Black histories through histories of print and publishing. 

Other posts in the series:

Reprinting Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Kaja Marczewska

The ‘reprint revolution’ and cultures of 20th c. Black publishing, by Kaja Marczewska