Vortex

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B e t w e e n

A Journal of New Vision

1980 and 1982,
a small group of friends and collaborators in San Francisco published four issues of Vortex: A Journal of New Vision.

In its short existence, Vortex reached out widely to artists, writers, performers, activists, and spiritual explorers whose work challenged the social order and envisioned other, possible futures. The result was a diverse cross-section of West Coast culture and politics on the eve of the Reagan revolution, when, for a brief moment, radical faeries and feminists, punks and anarchists, contemporary artists and New Age seekers rubbed shoulders and lit sparks. Twenty-five years later the new vision of Vortex remains fresh and provocative. An artifact of a time when cultural transformation seemed possible, indeed, immanent, the diverse voices preserved in its pages call on us to dream again and to dream larger, to answer darkness with vision.

The links on this page include two complete issues, a short history of the project, and a sampling of items documenting the times, the look, and the people of Vortex.

“We call to readers

to join us in exploring new Vortex 2 possibilities,
new worlds, new ways Vortex 3 of
seeing and feeling
. . . the New Vision. Vortex 1
Vortex 4

“The mainstream world would be a hopeless wasteland but for the glow beyond it. Beyond, rebels live....” Vortex 2

NOW ON LINE

Vortex 1 (.pdf)

Vortex 2 (.pdf)

Vortex 3: Lou Rudolph (.pdf)

Nightstick: A Novelized Account of the May 21 Riots
Stephen Marks (Will Roscoe)

A Call for Fairy Sanctuaries
Harry Hay & John Burnside

Planet Lake
Eva Lake

Sundown
Nona Collins

Three Poems
H. B. Pony

The Touches of Angels
5.22.79
Carol Queen

Sexual Criminals/Urban Refugees Dennis Morse

Behind Me
Bradley Rose

Cover art by Camille O’Grady

Camille O'Grady: Artist
Mark Thompson

Friday 13: A Conversation with Starhawk and Alan Acacia
Will Roscoe

Portoflio
Leslie Aguilar

Statement & Other Writings
Dennis Miles
art by Paul E. Brown

Mainstream Exiles: A Documentary Review
Will Roscoe & Matthews, Judy Grahn, Blackberri, Emanuel Ro

Orpheus
Samuel Steward
illustrated by Larry Bord

Fairy Tongue
Bradley Rose

Back cover and original stamp art
Ginny Lloyd

I Am Running
James Broughton

Magic of the Caves: Art of Spirit and Harmony
H. Constance King

Futurism and Neoshamanism
Dean Gengle

Thoughts About my Art in Context
Cornelia Reich
interview by Bradley Rose

A Sense of Center: The Marxist Spirituality Collective
Will Roscoe

"In Our Own Way"
Interview with W. Dorr Legge by Brad Mulroy

Shellshock in the Back of a Limousine
Stephen Jetmore

Lou Rudolph
Mark Thompson
art by Lou Rudolph

Anarchy: The Inner Voice
Will Roscoe & Bradley Rose

To Rear Cattle in the Evening
David Kubrin

Shikata Ga Nai
play by Barbara Noda
set design by John Hoffman

Magdalenian Batons
art by Milton Wilson

Art and gallery profiles
LaMamelle, Inc./SF
TRACTIONgallery/LA

A Song of Love
Jean Genet trans. Paul Mariah

Burning Times
music by Charlie Murphy
score rendered by William Stewart

The Hero's Journey
art and text by Larry Hartless

Vortex2

I feel myself more and more committed to pulling together the political and the spiritual.

Starhawk

Mark Thompson, The Advocate

”Vortex is the yellow (red hot, white-on,
singing- the-blues, green light) journalism of its day.“

LINKS

the story of vortex

sources & inspiration

vortex press kit

We can learn much from ages and cultures that knew/know the inter-relationships of all things, whose spirit and life were one.

Vortex 3

H. Constance King

VORTEX 3 PREMIERE PARTY

photos by rink

flyer & blessing by
the sisters of perpetual indulgence (.pdf)

“Vortex stretches the boundaries on all fronts.”

Magical Blend

Vortex 3

I now see how art is directly tied with the very core energy of life.

Lou Rudolph

Brad Mulroy

“Vortex is the paper of record—not of the past—the future.”

VORTEX STAMP ART
Click to download

Vortex 2

Artists have to offer not only a powerful means of communication—they can also project actual visions of non-sexist, non-racist, non-hierarchical consciousness.

Will Roscoe & Tede Matthews

VORTEX CENTERFOLDS

“planet lake“ by Eva Lake

“self-portrait“ by Leslie Aguilar

Download and use as wallpaper for your computer desktop

The shaman of the ‘80s is at the hard-cutting, sinewy blade-edge of disruption.

Vortex 3

Dean Gengle