Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) is pleased to announce the opening of the Meredith Stern Radical Feminist zine archive (LaRC-1178) for research and public access. 

The collection documents underground DIY punk and feminist cultural production from the early 1990s through the 2000s. Assembled by Tulane alumna Meredith Stern over several decades of active participation in punk, zine, and activist and grassroots communities, the archive traces networks of grassroots publishing and organizing from early East Coast collectives such as the Cabbage Collective and A Space to collectively run, autonomous community spaces in New Orleans, including Crescent Wrench Infoshop and Nowe Miasto. 

The 521-item archive provides an intimate record of DIY ethics and alternative knowledge production and includes zines and ephemera documenting feminism, riot grrrl movements, queer and trans identity, race and class politics, disability, health autonomy, food justice, bicycle repair, and the power of collective care and creative practice. It offers rich primary sources for scholars of social movements, print culture, gender studies, and contemporary cultural history. 

Archivist Samantha Schafer accessioned, arranged, and described the collection, establishing intellectual access while also implementing necessary preservation measures, including appropriate housing and protective enclosures of the zines, to ensure the long-term care and use of these often-ephemeral materials. The addition of Stern’s zine archive to the holdings of Tulane University Special Collections reflects TUSC’s ongoing commitment to documenting underrepresented voices and community-based cultural production.