Newtopia: a definition

n – a cultural review that examines how our politics and policies are reflected in our arts, government, and humanities.
v – an experimental form of thought mutation and cross-breeding, providing a unconventional forum for a range of detailed and informed socio-political opinion and analysis.
adj – words or ideas used for the development of new possibilities, theories, and solutions for a better world. Often confused with the word idealistic.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Newtopia Magazine was created by filmmaker, artist, writer and activist Charles Shaw and ran online from July 2002 to October 2005. In that time it grew from a small literary publication with five volunteer editors and a couple hundred people on a mailing list to a dynamic culture site that explored politics, culture, art, poetry, film, economics, and activism, and averaged 50,000 readers a month with editors on five continents. In July of 2004 (Issue #17) Newtopia received 300,000 unique visitors, and the mailing list reached 20,000. The concept was experimental: editorial control was limited to the selection of themes for each issue, and writers were free to interpret that theme any way they wanted.

The end product was a unique mixture of art and opinion and alternative research.

Today, Newtopia is an online collective of core artists and writers who develop independent autonomous work as well as collaborations with others of similar wavelengths in the world.

If you are an artist, writer or poet interested in being featured in our NewArtLab, NewLiteratureLab or NewPoetryCollective sections, drop me a line.

Kimberly Nichols, Managing Editor
kimberly@newtopiamagazine.org

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AT @NewtopiaMagazin

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

LETTER FROM NEWTOPIA FOUNDER AND EDITOR EMERITUS CHARLES SHAW

We are amidst revolutionary times, socially, politically, ecologically, economically, and technologically. In revolutionary times, what becomes more important are education and organization in order to properly understand and adapt to the changes that are happening all around.

Newtopia offers glimpses into this new culture of massive, decentralized networks of alternative art, politics, social movements, independent thought, sustainable communities, and radical solutions. In this new culture, a concern for the fate of the planet and all living beings takes precedence over the destiny of nations or the divisions wrought by religion and ethnicity. There is an overarching rejection of the values of consumer culture and a recognition that the mainstream corporate media has lost it’s objectivity and cannot be trusted nor relied upon except under limited circumstances. This means that we each owe it to each other to be responsible in what we publish.

In this we endeavor to develop a new language to effectively communicate across the many social and political divisions we suffer in our respective cultures. We must come to understand that much of this division is very carefully orchestrated to keep us from collaborating together on our common problems to force real change. It’s not important to convince our readers of any one side; what is more important is understanding all sides, in order to work for plausible solutions

We may never reach a Utopia, but it is possible to reach a Newtopia. It’s happening all around us right now.

Discussion