Upstream

UPSTREAM

Incantational Contaminations by Miriam SapersteinTracing how the extraction of demon bowls fueled the expansion of the University of Pennsylvania and similar projects across the so-called US.

Without Origins, We are Sacred by hannah jo king Tracing the interconnected genealogies of Black family and native Tobacco through ancestral channeling, interview, storytelling, ritual, and Black feminist scholarship.

Where the Ghost Cloud Meets the Lake by Liam CU and Maya Björnson Collaborative poetry process using the Manona Method, a futurist visioning tool, using seed-words to bloom language around radial wheel structures.

Coming Feb 1, 2026

Reference Point
by Rain JacobsonA multimedia essay about origins, motivated by a 1960 issue of Aperture.

Letter from the Editors on Issue 1: Source

TMITBD / ACT I: Deep Fragments
by Kelvin VuThree Mile Island (TMI) was the site of the worst commercial nuclear accident in US history. ACT I maps the fragments of its context.

Submission Guidelines for SourceWe are accepting pitches on the theme of "source" on a rolling basis.

On the Ground
by Zoe MorrisonAn essay tracing asphalt from ancient building material to modern-day petro-chemical extraction landscapes.

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Upstream is a publishing collectiveinterested in tending toall our relations. An invitationto notice, question, and mapthe dynamic ecologies between people, the built environment, and our nonhuman relatives.Relation, for us, moves beyond ideals of interconnection to work throughthe possibilities, tensions, limits, and debris that gatherin the eddiesof encounter. Too often, ecological thinking abstracts the world into universalizing totality.We try to start from where we are:Lenapehoking,so-called Philadelphia,a city built on layered ground,buried streams, and ongoing displacement.We are a porous and evolving collectiveof Penn affiliates and Philadelphia community members, a group of experimentersand an experiment as a group. We are rooted here,emphasizing in-person collaboration,physical print, and gatheringsthat nurture the slow practice of relation, while remaining opento digital tools that extend our reach and deepen our community. Upstream is engaged in destratified formsof thinking that seek to transform the limitsof the Insider-Outsider binary. We are interestedin the politicsand poeticsof relation,acknowledging how histories of inequalityand access, harmand repair, proximity and distancesituate all of our interactions. Our inaugural theme, Source,undoes conventional ideas of beginnings.When framed as a single point of origin, "source" reinforcescolonial narratives of purity and linear progression. Instead,we invite contributors to reflect on the sedimented,non-linear paths that lead us here.The works emerging from this theme explore flows of matter (uranium, asphalt...),meaning (divination, ritual...),and energy (labor, power)across bodies and geographies, questioningwhat it means to locateor losea beginning. Alongside our editorial work, we host workshopswhere contributors develop projects collaboratively(read more),exploringhow writing and making can deepen our relationships and understandings. We publish pieces on a rolling basis,collecting them into small print mini-issues,and later compiling into our first full print anthology on source. We are now accepting submissions!Upstream welcomes a manifold of modalitiesof work and exhibits those works in a flurry of mediums:whether it be hosted digitally on a website, made available on print, or ephemerally enacted as workshop or performance. Upstream is the hometo many communal wanderings. Reach out through Instagram or email to get involved. Sign up for our mailing list for events.

Swim on, fishes,
Upstream.

Swim Upstream ↑