"/ hit the curious abrupt questionings stir within me." Whitman, 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry'

Black Rose is not a magazine which organizes each issue around a given theme, as some publications will issue numbers largely devoted say to labor or feminism and so on. This number of Black Rose, however, seems to have a common thread running through it- fn this issue we are presenting a number of brief reports, impressions, evaluations of the recent international anarchist incontro held in Venice, Italy. We are also presenting an interview with Candace Faik, author of a recent book on Emma Goldman, as well as the usual assortment of poetry and graphics. What struck us as we prepared this number for publication was that all of the articles raised the issue of the need for a reevaluation or reconsideration of anarchism, and, in particular, examination of what has come to be called the problem of the 'persona! and the political.'

The anarchist movement today, though not without influence, certainly does not exercise much mass impact on existing social movements. The movement is hardly flourishingat the present. Thus the necessity for a reevaluation. We would like to see this reevaluation stick to the serious issues at hand and not get bogged down in rhetorical disputes over whether a 'new' anarchism is needed as opposed to the 'old' anarchism, whether a labor emphasis should take precedence over a cultural one, and so on. Otherwise one might just as well abandon any pretense of having an anarchist movement and go on to something else, something which would be, frankly, more 'relevant.'

Black Rose, however inadequately, has always sought to be a part of such a reevaluation, but with one caution: We see anarchism as being as much a cultural phenomenon as a political one, something as much an intrinsic part of personal makeup as it is a political expression. Anarchism is not something experienced as much as it is something lived.

There is an almost indefinable something that makes an American an American, something beyond mere recitation of the Declaration of independence, something beyond adherence to political beliefs. An American is an American because of a whole range of assimilated attitudes and understandings which are a part of his or her psychological makeup, an unconscious part if you will, because of what he or she is and does. This is a cultural phenomenon as much as a political one. In the same way anarchism is a behavior, an attitude, a mode of expression, a way of living as much as it is a catalogue of political beliefs. Indeed, in my opinion it is more so. That is why the poetry and the graphics in Black Rose are just as important as the more traditional articles, for there anarchism is not just expressed but embodied, and this sort of understanding ought to be an important part of any reevaluation that takes place. It is time that this is understood.

— Clym Yeobright