Houston | New Journalism Project

By Thorne Dreyer

ISBN: 978-1-304-79374-4

New Journalism Project Publishing is proud to announce the publication of Notes From the Underground: 77 Articles That Bring the Past to Life. Notes from the Underground is a collection of author Thorne Dreyer’s writing from 1966 to the present. Earlier work is taken from the 60s and 70s underground press – The Rag in Austin, Liberation News Service, and Space City! in Houston. The articles demonstrate the power of participatory journalism. Dreyer’s later writing reflects on the cultural and political upheaval of earlier decades and sheds light on contemporary issues.

Thorne Dreyer is a director of the New Journalism Project. He is also host and producer of Rag Radio, a syndicated program that originates on KOOP FM, a cooperatively run community radio station in Austin, Texas, and is editor of The Rag Blog, a progressive internet newsmagazine. Dreyer was a pioneer of the underground press in the 1960s and 1970s, when he was a founding editor of The Rag in Austin and Space City! in Houston. He was general manager of KPFT FM, Pacifica radio in Houston, operated a leading public relations business there, and worked with progressive political campaigns.

Dreyer’s parents were prominent Houston artist Margaret Webb Dreyer and writer Martin Dreyer, whose Dreyer Galleries was a gathering spot for artists and activists. Dreyer was an editor of Celebrating The Rag (2016) and Exploring Space City! (2021), and author of Making Waves (2022).

Edited by Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree, Cam Duncan, and Sherwood Bishop

ISBN: 978-1-312-16267-9

New Journalism Project is proud to announce its new book, Exploring Space City!: Houston’s Historic Underground Newspaper. A companion to Celebrating The Rag published in 2016, Exploring Space City! is a 376-page exploration of Houston’s groundbreaking publication to be released December 7, 2021. In the words of historian Robert Cottrell, “This lovingly crafted compilation captures the spirit of the New Left and the counterculture.” Purchase the book at Lulu.com.

Space City! was an underground newspaper published in Houston from June 5, 1969 to August 3, 1972. Though it was relatively short-lived, the paper – which was continually under assault from the Ku Klux Klan – was widely acknowledged to be one of the very best of the ’60s-70s underground newspapers that had significant impact on mainstream journalism. Space City! covered news not otherwise reported and helped pull together a widespread and diverse countercultural and New Left community in Houston.

Exploring Space City! features both articles and artwork from the original Space City! as well as essays written specifically for the book by its editors and others, designed to look back on the historical importance of the paper and to add contemporary perspective. The original Space City! included coverage of Black, Chicano, and white activists, the police shooting of Black leader Carl Hampton, the war in Vietnam and the movement against it, and the women’s and gay movements. And the paper did in-depth power structure research on who rules Houston, and extensive coverage of the cultural scene with features on Janis Joplin and Muhammad Ali and more. And it’s all in the book.