The pub is a print only publication, which means it is found only on the paper that’s distributed by hand in the Chicago area. To engage with the pub, readers are required to do their own investigating. Admittedly, we make nothing easy. You can’t simply search for us on Instagram, scroll through our past posts and “get the gist.” Since we began a year ago, we have asked you, instead, to come to our events, dig into our archive, and engage with our work. By asking our readers to show up in this new, physical way, we hope to get to know our audience, meet new artists, and connect with the thriving DIY scene that exists here in Chicago.
The pub is not just a publication to read, but a way in which our readers can engage with the people in their surrounding community. The pub is a gathering place in town—a watering hole. The pub is a community space where you can get to know your neighbors and socialize with your friends. Most importantly, the pub exists to serve the public. There are no qualifications to enter. It doesn’t cater to the rich or the popular. It serves all equally.
Something has been lost with the digitization of newspapers. In its paper form, publications used to facilitate in-person discussion, get people together, and create community in the process. But since these conversations have moved to comment sections and chat forums, we have lost the opportunity to physically connect through these dialogues. Because of this, we believe there is political power in the pub existing only as a physical object. We at the pub believe that culture is made through the relationships we build, and visualized through the things we make with our hands.
A strong fire produced by an action on one end of the computer only reveals itself as a flicker of lights on the screen on the other end. The power of the fire—the warmth, the rumbling chaos that lives within it—is lost, only felt by those within its physical reach. The pub is our small fire, a spark that just needed to be lit. And now, as you hold this paper in your hands, we hope you feel the fire as it transfers from our hands to yours. Read it, feel it, share it.
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I’ve grown to like the act of picking up a magazine or a newspaper. I like when I can take something in my hand and carry it with me on the subway or in a waiting room. I sit down with a coffee or a tea on a comfy couch or sturdy café chair and open the pages to read slowly. I tuck it under my arm when I transfer trains and keep reading when I stand on the platform waiting. I carry it with me to see my friends, and I field questions from them when I set it down on the table and empty my pockets upon arrival. We talk about the stories I just read. I leave the paper on their coffee table so that it pesters them to open it when they have a free moment, to flip through it when they’re bored, so that maybe they’ll ask about it later.
welcome to the pub.
sit down, grab a drink, and stay a while.