FITZ Rare Finds
FITZ offers rare finds on a semi-annual basis, emphasizing texts and documents with seminal influence on the social movements, art and theory of our time. It is FITZ's intention to place each of these exceedingly rare items in a research library where they can be accessed by scholars, theorists and movements leaders.
Magick Lantern Cycle, by Kenneth Anger
Film Makers' Cinematheque Spring 1966, New York
Accompanied the 1966 Spring Equinox showing of Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle at Jonas Mekas' Film Makers Cinematheque. The Cycle holds a central place in the histories of experimental film and queer art and theory, presaging the queer liberation movement and helping to define its aesthetic. An exquisite book object with bold orange lettering and stills from Cycle films.
A Black Value System, by Amiri Baraka
Jihad Productions, 1970, Newark
Published in 1970 by Jihad Productions, founded by Baraka in conjunction with the Jihad Cultural Center in Newark, a Black Value System posits a Black nationalism rooted in the seven guiding principles of Maulana Ron Karenga.
In Our Terribleness, by Amiri Baraka
Bobs Merrill Co, 1970
Baraka, in conjunction with photographer FUNDI, employs non-linear, postmodern poetic form and Afro-centric themes to potent effect in In Our Terribleness. With mirrored endpapers and black-bordered pages, the cloth-bound hardcover epitomizes the high standards of early 70s book-making.
_PNG.png)
_PNG.png)
Fighting Back! Attica Memorial Book 1974
A publication of the Attica Brothers Legal Defense, Fighting Back! includes contributions from many surviving Attica Brothers and solidarity movement leaders. Its zine aesthetic, integrating prose, collage and photography, captures a foundational moment in the movement for decarceration, now ascendant.
_PNG.png)
Journal of a Transsexual, by Diane Leslie Feinberg
World View Publishers NY, February 1980; 1 of 895 originally published; ISBN 10: 0895670364 ISBN 13: 9780895670366;
An autobiographical journal of Feinberg’s experiences of trans life, predating by thirteen years the publication of hir groundbreaking Stone Butch Blues, seen as the founding text of the trans liberation movement. Grounded in class and race analysis, Journal of a Transsexual presages the rise of intersectionality, seeded by publisher World View.
Solidarity - official organ of the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania [No. 6 Second Quarter 1981 and No. 7 Third Quarter 1981]
The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) emerged as a political trend in South Africa in the decade after the banning of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), South Africa's two oldest civil rights organizations, by the South African government. Black students, and black youth in general, revived the anti-apartheid struggle in the late 1960s by emphasizing self-reliance, mass mobilization and cultural awareness. At the time of the Soweto uprising in 1976, the Black Consciousness movement, led by Steve Biko, counted more than twenty mass organizations, eighteen of which were banned the following year by the South African regime. Solidarity numbers 6 & 7, published four years after Biko’s assassination, memorialize his death and map a path forward for the freedom movement as it achieved ascendancy worldwide through student, labor and community organizing.
Akwesasne Notes
More than 50 issues of the official publication of the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne (People of the Longhouse) and contains (from time to time) Longhouse news, the official publication of the Mohawk Nation at Kanawake. Edited by Mohawk thought leader John Mohawk, Akwesasne Notes presents a seminal contemporary account of movements for indigenous liberation Available are Volume 11, #1-#2; Volume 12, #3-#5; Volume 13, #1-#5; Volume 14, #1-#6; Volume 15, #2, #3, #5, #6 (Winter 1983); Volume 16, #1-6; Volume 17, #1, #3-#5; Volume 18, #1-2, #5; Volume 19, #1-3; Volume 20, #6; Volume 22, #5; Late Winter, 1982; 40 total
Racism is the Issue
Heresies #15
Includes the first appearance of Alice Walker's "If the Present Looks Like the Past, What Does the Future Look Like?." as well as a pre-publication excerpt of Audre Lorde’s “Sister, Outsider”. It also features a full page plate of Ana Mendieta from her Silueta series and writings and art work from Lorna Simpson, and Cynthia Carr. A crowing achievement of the Heresies Collective, active in print from 1977 to 1993.
Then What? Photographs and Folklore, by Carrie Mae Weems
Cepa Gallery, January 1, 1990
Produced in conjunction with an early Weems's show at the CEPA Gallery, Then What? features photographs in 10 accordion-fold inserts. Her striking pictures, some portraits and some still-lifes, are accompanied by the folkloric explications relating to her subjects.
In These Islands: South Carolina, Georgia, by Carrie Mae Weems
The University of Alabama Sarah Moody Gallery of Art 1995
ISBN: 0964529203, 9780964529205
An exceedingly rare catalog printed in conjunction with Weems’ seminal 1995 show at the University of Alabama, Sarah Moody Gallery of Art documenting life in the Sea Islands. ISBN 0964529203
%20-%20Edited.png)
%20-%20Edited.png)
A Sound Investment: Short Stories for Young Readers, by Sonia Sanchez
Third World Press, 2nd Printing 1985
Sanchez’s classic collection of fables for children reflecting special truths about life and human nature, published by Third World Press. This second printing is inscribed and dated 1987 on the front flyleaf by Sanchez.
Buffalo’s Own PUNK Magazine
PUNK Magazine #2, published in Buffalo in 1973. PUNK is the earliest known use of “punk” in print with its counter-cultural connotation. It features contributions from many of the critics who would popularize punk rock in subsequent years, including Lester Bangs, R. Meltzer, Billy Altman, and Joe Fernbacher;
Close-Cropped Tales, by John Baldassari
Published jointly by Albright-Knox Gallery and CEPA
Photographs cropped in different (triangular to octangular) shapes, this composition adds to the tale. No Text. This book is part of the third project of FOUR BY THREE, a series of four exhibitions and concurrent artists' residencies in 1980-1981, jointly sponsored by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, CEPA Gallery and Hallwalls, all of Buffalo, New York.
_PNG.png)