Alternatives and The New Quarterly "twin" their issues

It's not that often that Canadian magazines work as closely together as Alternatives magazine (an environmental journal) and The New Quarterly (a literary journal) have. Both are published on the campus of the University of Waterloo; the "twinned" issues on Creative Communities (Alternatives) and the Artist-as-Activist (TNQ) will be officially launched this week.

Creative Communities is a double issue that talks about models of community engagement, from international eco-arts projects, festivals and film to storytelling and gardening, as well as visual and performing arts. Artist as Activist is a theme issue that goes behind the scenes with writers, storytellers, musicians, visual artists and performers to reflect on the complex, often heartbreaking, world of arts creation and community collaboration. This book-length issue includes a live-recording CD of R.Murray Schafer’s Wolf Music (for subscribers only).

(The two publications are coinciding their launch with sponsorship of a new opera by singer/songwriter James Gordon, called Hardscrabble Road, about the down-on-their-luck and the dispossessed; the musical opens on Friday January 19 at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener. Inspired by the Beggar's Opera and its successor the Three-Penny Opera, Hardscrabble Road's music is a hybrid combination of folk, pop, jazz, rock and world beat sounds.)