Outpost Journal focuses on art, design, and community action from cities that have been traditionally underexposed beyond their local contexts. Each issue focuses on a single urban location, and paints a vernacular, word-of-mouth portrait of a cities cultural life. Hailing from Providence, RI, the magazine describes scenes so lively, you’ll wonder if you’re living in the right place.
This inaugural issue focuses on the city of Pittsburg, which is the former home of Mister Rogers, has lost both the steel industry and half of its population, and is ranked by Forbes Magazine as #1 on it’s list America’s most livable cities. The magazine features profiles on the local artists and cultural nodes which thrive on the cities abundance of empty space: old punk houses and artist’s squats, The Conflict Kitchen, a restaurant which only serves street food from countries with which the United States is in conflict, and the cities many re-purposed churches. Perhaps most touching, is a one page comic by Mike Taylor, relating Pittsburg hometown hero Fred ‘Mr. Rogers’ 1969 testimony before senate in defense of PBS, which was threatened by moves to divert half of its funding to the war in Vietnam. Roger’s argument for the worth of his kind of children’s programming, ‘we’ve got to have more of this neighborhood expression of care,’ succinctly puts two worldviews in contrast, and is an apt description of this magazines’ regionalist ethos.