Queer.Archive.Work / urgencyreader2 (2020)



URGENCY READER 2 (2020)


Urgency Reader 2: Mutual Aid Publishing During Crisis began with a 10-day open call that was announced on March 18, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The call for work was motivated by two desires:

1—to collectively document some of the extraordinary conditions, dynamics, and emotions being experienced while in quarantine, and 2—to provide some relief to artists and writers impacted by the crisis, in both creative and monetary forms. How might publishing as artistic practice embody communal care?

More than 100 artists and writers submitted work, mostly generated during quarantine. Contributors were compensated a total of $2,295, using funds from a 2020 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts grant, plus an anonymous donation. 65 of the 110 contributors donated their share of the compensation back to the pool, resulting in 45 contributors each receiving a stipend of $51.

An edition of 25 copies of Urgency Reader 2 was printed and assembled at Queer.Archive.Work during the first week of April 2020. A high-quality scan of the printed edition is available for free download (see below). Physical copies of the reader have been permanently placed in our library for future visitors, once it’s safe to re-open to the public. Additionally, 15 printed copies are immediately available for purchase ($100 including shipping, tax-deductible) sold out; email Paul to inquire. All proceeds will be used to fund Riso Residencies artists’ stipends at Queer.Archive.Work.



Urgency Reader 2: Mutual Aid Publishing During Crisis
  • Loose assemblage of 129 prints, folded sheets, and zines
  • Rubber bands and plastic bag
  • 278 pages + cover
  • Risograph printed with black, teal, purple, burgundy, and fluorescent pink inks on various papers
  • Edition: 25 hand-numbered copies
DOWNLOAD URGENCY READER 2
Lower-res scan of printed edition (203MB PDF)
High-res scan of printed edition (1.73GB PDF)
Individual spreads posted at Are.na



Contributors and contents
  1. AK/OK—(Kate Jarboe + M. Wright)—All together now! Neighbourhood dispatches from Montréal, March 2020
  2. Adam Chuong—New Horizons
  3. Alessandro Ghio, Nicholas McGuigan, Lisa Powell—A Queer Accounting Manifesto
  4. Alexis Erickson—Beautiful Faces
  5. Andrew W. Smith—Collapse
  6. Anna Gardner—no time
  7. anobelisk—Bippy goes to Hell
  8. Anonymous—To the RISD Community
  9. Anonymous—A Call for Complaint: for Plague Speech, for Sick Speech.
  10. Anonymous Nurses­—Pattern for a face mask
  11. Ant M Lobo—Untitled Digital Collage
  12. Anthony Warnick—We Will Not Be The Final Generation
  13. Anzia Anderson—calendar
  14. arthur katrina—NOTES FROM WEEK ONE : THE RELUCTANT HERMIT, THE INTIMATE APOCALYPSE, VIRUS DAZE INTUITIVE MIXTAPES VOL. 1–5
  15. Athena Zeros—day break bird
  16. Azulae Northa—Looking in
  17. Bailey Steele—Meet Me Inside
  18. Be Oakley—Collective Self Isolations: Thoughts on Radical Softness as a Boundless Form of Resistance during a Pandemic
  19. bean drake—Fair winds and Following Seas
  20. brook vann—ataraxic blue
  21. Cade Diehm & Edward Anthony, The New Design Congress—Welcome to the Artificial Wilderness
  22. Caiti Borruso—On being laid off
  23. Carlos Kong—Faden/Thread
  24. Carmen Ribaudo—Primaveral Drawings
  25. Caroline Sorin—canwepanicnow.gif
  26. chariot wish—GOD BLESS YOU IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE, GODFAG, EVIL BITCH PARADISE
  27. Chr. Winther—04.44.44
  28. Christian Ortiz—Human Movement Slowdown
  29. Christopher Cole
  30. claire m.—prophecies now!
  31. Connor Frew—WHAT WAS MIES THINKING (HEALTHCARE FOR ALL)
  32. corinne ang—walking distance
  33. D Rosen—Swallow your puppy–
  34. Danny Aldred—Nullius in Verba
  35. Dylan Tescher W.—Princess Dress
  36. Edwige Charlot—kay lòt moun / home of others
  37. Elaine Lopez—How empathy, inclusion, and community in my classroom have prepared me to deal with the disruptions of Covid-19
  38. Elie Andersen—What We Ate
  39. Elisabeth Nicula—March 27, 2020
  40. ellen zahniser—THE SPLINTERED STRUCTURES OF HISTORY TOWER ABOVE AS I WALK ALONG
  41. Emma Kemp with May Hoover, Angel Barris, Brittany Carter, Adriene Im—Correspondences (Otis College)
  42. Erik Freer—The Inheritance
  43. everett epstein—are you guys up for some reggae tonight?
  44. GOVERNANCE (Rebecca Uliasz and Quran Karriem)—Sunsetting the Species
  45. Gregory Ghilani Fawkes—Fire shower
  46. Greta Huang Skagerlind—Poem re: striding
  47. Gu—Elsewhere
  48. Hannah Azar Strauss—Sacred Heart Sinks
  49. Hugo Gallo—Hugo’s Quarantime Dispatch
  50. Jake Dugard—S•O•S
  51. Jennifer Tobias—Untitled
  52. Joe Potts—Unfolding Inquiries: notes from the Southland Institute on some considerations as online education moves into the foreground
  53. John-Francis Quiñonez—I Know, in Some Ways, I Must be Answering for All the Times I Begged for More Time in my Kitchen (Poem)
  54. Joshua Duttweiler—Aren’t We All, Just Keep Swimming, We Are, We Ell Hand Sanitizer
  55. Katherine Ye—24 hours in Pittsburgh
  56. kathy cho & rachel hrbek—it’s ok
  57. Kelsey Sucena & Nessa Grasing—The Leech Manifesto
  58. Kirslyn Schell-Smith—Per My Last E-Mail
  59. Kit—futurity
  60. Kitt Peacock—First Night Fever Dream for Pauvi Tem
  61. L S—Claustrophobic haze of blossoms
  62. Laith A. Ayogu—Boiled, hole
  63. laura lamb brown-lavoie—“Thing I used to do with my tongue”—“Well I guess we are in this now” (that one is three parts)
  64. Lauren Stroh—DAY FOUR
  65. Lermworm—Quarantine Thoughts (What happens next?)
  66. Lisa J. Maione—One After Another; Future Dream
  67. Logan K. Young—Six Uneasy Pieces
  68. Louise Drulhe—Quarantine - Day 10
  69. Louna Bou Ghanem—I’m re-experiencing feelings
  70. Luis Carlos López—Quarantine sucks and I take delight
  71. Mae Eskenazi—Becoming Expansive
  72. Maggie Siebert—Things I Believe About Ed Sheeran
  73. Marisa Fulper Estrada—Static Freefall
  74. Miriam Navarro Prieto—When This All Ends
  75. Molly Soda
  76. Nafis M. White—Social Distance Musings in the Rona Era
  77. nicole killian—toto caelo
  78. Nina Muccia—at home at last forever
  79. Noa Mori—In the Wake of the Crisis We Must // A Thin Layer of Sanitizer & Fear
  80. Norah Gunn—“Untitled”
  81. Olive B. Godlee—Weeks After the Last Party
  82. Oliver/Olivier—Being In Flux
  83. Pablo Lerma—The Impossibility of Looking Outside and/or How To Think About Care
  84. Paul Maheke—The Year I Stopped Making Art
  85. Pickle Partisans—Phase-Shift
  86. Rachel Hrbek—The Tower
  87. Rebecca Gates—Untitled 2020327
  88. Rebecca Wilkinson
  89. Rena Rong—Musings from Elmwood
  90. robynn.xyz—OS/error
  91. Ruben Castillo—Stills from a video performance, Fluff
  92. Ryan Skrabalak—American Water Round I
  93. Rylie LAWVER—a post frontier proposal
  94. Sabrena & Rose Ghostly—Absurdities Amidst the Virus
  95. Sal Randolph—Urgent Sonnets
  96. sam m-h—A Note--for Digital Dwellers/Dwelling
  97. Sara Inacio—little armored one
  98. Shou Jie Eng—‘Her shelves contained the world’
  99. Sigrid Pauen—Very Late Capitalism
  100. Sophia Le Fraga—When You Talk
  101. Sophie Seita and Naomi Woo—Manifesto of The Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions
  102. T. Deutch—We Will Keep Going
  103. Taehee Whang—Diary Log-3.25.2020
  104. tess brown-lavoie—resist austerity and do not touch face
  105. The Making Public Collective (corresponding author Miriam Rasch)—Introduction to Here & Now? Explorations in Urgent Publishing
  106. Tiara Roxanne—Digital Attunement (an introduction)
  107. Tiffany Patterson—Works from the quarantine–March 2020
  108. wermo—derangements
  109. Wil van Iersel—Headlines
  110. Zoë Pulley—ME, MYSELF & I / A WALK
Edited and published by Paul Soulellis