Issue 22 of Rat: Subterranean News features exposés on abortion reform, gender discrimination in the media, repression of revolutionary groups in Latin America, police brutality in Perth Amboy, torture of female political prisoners on the Ilha das Flores, riot police presence at a peaceful protest of scholarships withheld from black athletes at the University of Buffalo, and the Harlem Six trial, among others. Also includes a centerfold with clever détournements of popular newspaper comic strips in the style of the Situationist International.

From our 2016 exhibition Realize Your Desires, of which this work was a part: “Following the landmark Supreme Court decision of 1966 which allowed a more tolerant legal climate for publishers, the ‘Underground Press’ emerged as a site for radical commentary and critique in the US, progressing a number of social movements and shifting the cultural landscape at large. Usually published as weeklies – often in large editions – these publications provided a vibrant space for revolutionary ideas which played out on all fronts of politics and culture, addressing head-on a host of issues including the anti-war movement, black power movement, women’s liberation, gay rights, sexual liberation, and drug culture.”