We are living in a time where material pressures — unprecedented levels of economic inequality and environmental degradation — are suffocating the vast majority of people. 

The time for action is approaching. We need spaces like The Oberlin Rose to do imaginative work, critically examine long-held practices which result from destructive power structures rooted in violence and inequity, and discuss the steps forward that we can take to transcend their embeddedness.

One of this magazine’s critical functions is to serve the different organizing and activist spheres in and around our community by centralizing and promoting information about disparate projects and events, boosting the potential for collective action and collaboration. Countless organizing spaces currently exist around Oberlin, each filled with people who are passionate about fighting to materialize their unique vision of fairness and justice; unfortunately, many of us have learned to associate local activism with the numerous episodes where we united under a shared passion for change, but quickly crumbled under the weight of miscommunication and factionalism. 

The forces we are fighting against are often complex, highly organized structures. They have done the work to build lasting frameworks of coordination necessary to generate immense power for the people. We only have ourselves to rely on — fellow human beings, united by a small yet unrelenting spark of hope and optimism to build a more just future. To transform this thought into action, our individual sparks have to collectivise into one unified flame — inextinguishable, with scorching tendrils branching out in every possible direction, melting the cage that has kept us from attaining a kinder world for longer than any of us can remember.

We created this magazine to help realize this vision. When the myriad activist spaces around our community use this space to develop bonds of productive dialogue and reciprocity with each other, we start building the frameworks of collaboration and solidarity necessary to become an unstoppable force.

We believe that the most powerful individuals in our community have too long been spared from accountability for their failures to provide for our community. This magazine is to be a hub for intercommunal coordination and critical dialogue, created with the intent of producing powerful movements to change the fundamental structures of power, thereby better aligning all our interests with justice, fairness, and morality.

Cover artwork by Isaiah Johnson.