In honor of the fifth year of CUNY Chapfest, we here at the Center for The Humanities had an idea—the same impulse that everyone who participates in the Chapfest had at one time: Let’s make a chapbook!
In the spirit of innovative publishing that, as the publishers of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, we believe in and foster, we wanted to create something different. What we came up with is this superchap—a mini-anthology for the Chapfest. Inspired by the wonderful, imaginative work of all the small presses that are the heart of the Chapfest, and by Jack Spicer’s Open Space, this book is meant to be democratic and community-driven, yet tied to the local, the particular. We invited each publisher to fill one page of the chapbook however they wanted. The result is a place where aesthetics and voices collide and echo and create a collective music—not unlike that of the city itself.
The book was assembled and designed by Megan Mangum, our Lost & Found designer, and the cover was designed by book artist Jeff Peterson of Double Cross Press. The printing was done by Peter Viegas and the Graduate Center Graphic Arts shop, underscoring the ways in which individual artistry can coexist with institutional production.
We hope you enjoy this collaborative experiment! In the spirit of creativity, community, and open spaces, we left a few pages blank for you to fill in.
Love and chapbooks,
The Center for the Humanities
Cover artist bio:
Jeff Peterson began designing in collaboration with MC Hyland, creating posters for the Pocketlab Reading Series in Minneapolis, MN, and chapbook covers for DoubleCross Press. Jeff has designed book covers, album covers, flyers, invitations, decals, t-shirts, and more for artists and non-profit organizations, and has continued collaborating with MC Hyland, including the 2012 Art Shanty Projects, during which they constructed and operated a letterpress studio on the frozen surface of Medicine Lake in Minnesota. Jeff and MC recently moved to Brooklyn, and are continuing to collaborate on DoubleCross Press and other projects.
