Ragazine.cc is an online magazine on art, information and entertainment. Taking its name from an underground publication produced in the ‘70s by a group of friends in Columbus, Ohio, I began the electronic version in 2004 as a way to share the art, photography and writings of many of these same people. Little by little, with the participation of several editors and contributors from the Greater Binghamton area (in upstate New York), and more recently Metro New York, the zine gathered momentum. It has since become an international collaboration of artists, writers, poets, photographers, musicians, travelers, and interested others, with participating editors and contributors from all over the world.
We mix it up from issue to issue with work from new and emerging talent placed side-by-side with contributions from some of the most established and respected creative people working today. Virtually everyone whose work has appeared in Ragazine is listed in alphabetical order on our Friends and Contributors page, so I won’t go into name-dropping here. We publish every two months, and generally run about 20 features in each issue including poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, photography, art, travel, music, politics, humor, satire, and more. The variety depends on what we think of, what we can generate and what we receive. It’s hard to ask someone who makes a living writing to give us a couple thousand words on hydraulic fracking. But they do it!
We tried to publish monthly, but almost everyone who works on Ragazine.CC has a full-time job. Until we’re able to find a way to monetize without compromising the editorial freedom we have to publish pretty much anything we like, in the way we like, we probably aren’t going to be able to afford the salaries people are worth to publish more than six times a year. It just amazes me month after month that we’re still around and working together.
As an example of some of our “outside activities,” Ragazine is co-sponsoring with the We Are You Project, a fund raiser at the Maysles Cinema (www.mayslesinstitute.org) in February, featuring readings by the WAYP poets and a screening of the WAYP documentary directed by Brazilian artist Duda Penteado/a Jinsing production (www.weareyouproject.org). We are planning a speculative fiction contest for people of color, as well as participation in a film festival being organized by Spool Mfg gallery in Johnson City, N.Y.
As long as people keep coming up with ideas, and are willing to put their shoulders to the wheel to see them through to completion, we will keep going and growing. I look at your Journal as often as it comes into my mailbox in the morning, and wonder how you do it day after day. Obviously, there are thousands of talented photographers in the world whose work deserves to be seen. It’s fantastic that you are able to find them, and bring their work to light. We feel much the same way about our contributors, and it’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to share with you and your audience a bit of what we do and why we do it.
Chuck Haupt is photo editor of Ragazine.
Mike Foldes Founder/Managing Editor
