I've been publishing HopeDance for six years. Six years ago I made a vow that I would undertake this endeavor only if I wouldn't go national (since when I did publish a national, in the 80s, it became a nightmare). Well, ambition, along with a peculiar and unruly bout of social change obsession, drew me to try it again. After giving away a few thousand copies of the "premiere" national edition at various "sustainability" conferences, while only receiving a handful of subscriptions, plus hearing numerous horror stories about the finances of certain "sustainability," publications, I finally decided to give it up and stick with the LOCAL.
However, we might take on the task of becoming a magazine subscription dealer, to help readers choose the best and brightest of national (and international) publications that focus on social change, sustainability and an activism that embraces both the inner and the outer, the personal and the political.
I recall that my publishing vision six years ago was similar to that of the local food production enthusiast: we need to eat local instead of having our food travel 1500 miles to get to our table. So why should our media have to be transported thousands of miles to get to us? For example, for over a year, HopeDances were being shipped from SLO County to a distributor in New York and then from New York to sit on magazines shelves in Santa Cruz, CA. Not a very sustainable arrangement, wouldn't you say?
Perhaps I'm idealistic, like the local food enthusiast, but I believe we need to take the necessary steps toward becoming the sustainability we seek.
Thanks for those who have subscribed, volunteered, donated, seen the films, patronized our advertisers or given subscriptions as gifts. Without your continued support we would cease to exist.
Since we have cancelled our national edition, we have returned to numbering our new edition (the copy in your hands) with #36. New subscribers will now receive six issues rather than four, and those who had subscribed to the local edition, your credits will be added to your current subscription. Also, because of the change, we will gradually add book reviews, columnists and special issue themes to the newly improved HopeDance. We have cancelled our national distributors' contracts as well. If we expand, it will be organic and based on grass roots enthusiasm.
Thanks for your patience in these ever-evolving times. Your comments are welcome.
