In 1966, students at the University of Texas saw censorship and suppression unfolding around them and decided to take a stab at preserving free speech through an underground magazine they dubbed The Rag. While original “ragsters” have kept the ethos active in blog and radio format, now-alumni Kira Small and Ava Hosseini, alarmed by similar politics on campus and beyond, picked up the print torch last fall, publishing the first physical edition in more than 50 years. Their approach to paper-to-peer communication has a similar urgency. “No, Social Media Is Not the New ‘Public Square,’” Small wrote in an essay in the debut revival issue. The colorful zine, complete with cartoons, essays, and other commentary, draws on the humor and candor of the publication’s legacy for a contemporary crowd.
