The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | The Rag makes history!

We ‘Celebrate The Rag’ & it’s lasting impact on our city at the Austin History Center, Sunday, Feb. 19.

From left: Richard Croxdale, Alice Embree, and Thorne Dreyer, editors of Celebrating The Rag. Photo by Alan Pogue / The Rag Blog.

AUSTIN — The Austin History Center is “Celebrating The Rag” with a big event on Sunday, February 19, 2017, from 2-4 p.m. And everyone’s invited!

Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree, and Richard Croxdale, editors of the acclaimed new book, Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper, will speak and lead a discussion. And they will sign copies of the book.

Glenn Scott of People’s History in Texas will sneak preview screening of the new documentary film, The Rag: Austin Underground Press 1966-1977, that tells the history of the legendary underground newspaper that helped make Austin weird.

Books will be available for purchase. And there will be refreshments!

The Austin History Center (AHC), which is part of the Austin Public Library system, is located at 810 Guadalupe St. in downtown Austin.

Go to the Facebook event page.

 
What is The Rag?

Fifty years ago, Austin gave birth to the highly influential underground newspaper, The Rag. Noted for its unique blend of New Left politics and ‘60s alternative culture — presented with a hearty dose of irreverent Texas humor and psychedelic art — The Rag was one of the earliest, most influential, and longest-lasting of the 1960s-‘70s underground papers that spread across the country in what the New Yorker called “one of the most spontaneous and aggressive growths in publishing history.”

The Rag celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding with a four-day, multi-venue series of events in October 1969.

 
What is the book?

Celebrating The Rag tells the remarkable story of the legendary underground newspaper that sparked a political and cultural revolution and helped make Austin weird.

Screen grab from the Rag movie.

The book features more than 100 articles from The Rag’s 11-year history, plus contemporary essays and vintage art and photography. This collection captures the radical politics and subversive humor that marked the pages of this upstart newspaper between 1966 and 1977.

Thorne Dreyer was the original “funnel” of The Rag in 1966. He now edits The Rag Blog and hosts the syndicated Rag Radio program. Austin activist Alice Embree, a veteran of the women’s movement and progressive politics, worked with the paper through much of its history. Richard Croxdale and Glenn Scott, who were on the Rag staff in the paper’s later years, are film producers with People’s History in Texas. They made the documentary film about The Rag.

Celebrating The Rag can be found in Austin at BookPeople, BookWoman, Antone’s Record Shop, and all Planet K and Oat Willie’s stores. It can be purchased online at Lulu.com, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble, and is available through Ingram.