About
Upstream is a publishing collective based in Lenapehoking (so-called Philadelphia), formed through a shared desire for cross-disciplinary exchange, collective study, and peer support. We gather to notice, question, and map the dynamic ecologies between people, the built environment, and our nonhuman relatives.
Our work takes form through workshops, editing, experimental print and digital publications, and in-person gatherings rooted in slow collaboration. We live and work across Philadelphia, meeting in homes, studios, or online, gathering to share meals and ideas, drawing from a long lineage of self-organized artist and publishing communities in the city.
Over the past year, we have collaborated with artists, writers, and researchers on our inaugural theme, Source, which resists linear origin stories in favor of nonlinear, sedimented paths shaped by movement, extraction, memory, and repair. Through participatory workshops and collective making, we approach publishing as a social and aesthetic practice that cultivates attention, relation, and shared meaning.
We are still accepting submissions for Source, to be published this coming year digitally, in two mini-issues, and as a compilation printed volume.
Ultimately, Upstream seeks to sustain a living ecosystem of artists and writers who blur disciplinary boundaries and explore what it means to move and think together, attuned to flow, relation, and care.
The following traces how Upstream emerged and continues to evolve.
SEPTEMBER 2024
First Workshop
In September of 2024, we held our first workshop. Participants each brought a text and image of personal significance, which were then shared and combined into a collective drawing.
We see workshops as an opportunity to cultivate interdisciplinary relationships that explore ecological and social interdependencies through collective study and slow collaboration.
LATE 2024
Printing Issue 0
Information about Upstream and a description of the first gathering were synthesized into a design by Tiger Dingsun and risograph printed by collective members, bringing to life Issue 0.
With the printing of Issue 0, we began planning a launch party and announced an open call inviting works that complicate the idea of ‘source.’ Since Issue 0’s release last December, we have secured 20 contributors.
DECEMBER 2024
Launch Event
In December of 2024 we hosted our launch event at Public Trust which garnered interest in Upstream and allowed members, potential collaborators, and curious Philadelphians to mingle.
Upstream members Maria and Brit preparing copies of Issue 0 for distribution at the Launch Event at Public Trust in December, 2024.
Our patron, Fish Lady, benevolently watching over stacks of Issue 0 awaiting distribution at Upstream’s Launch event at Public Trust in December, 2024.
MARCH 2025
Reflection
In March, 2025, Upstream members gathered to reflect on what brought us here and what we wanted to bring forward, using a diagram of the earth as a guide.
APRIL 2025
Contributors Workshop
In April of 2025, contributors gathered in-person and digitally in order to receive feedback on their work from peers and to make a communal drawing. Editors and authors worked in breakout groups, one one one, and in full group discussion to create open ended dialogue and problem solve individual pieces.
Merging images from each contributor’s research, we created a collaborative drawing that was utilized in later digital designs.
JULY 2025
Means of Production Group Show
In July of 2025, Upstream was invited to participate in the art collective Lunch Hour’s group show, Means of Production, which explored questions around labor from the perspective of contemporary artists. The exhibit, which was part experimental-market, was located in the Sheerly Touch-Ya/Shisanwu LLC warehouse in Queens, NY, out of which the collective operates.
Ulises Books x FORTUNE Big Summer Book Sale
Upstream member Teri and friend of Upstream Sol running the table at the Icebox Project Space in July, 2025 at the Ulises Books x FORTUNE Big Summer Book Sale.
OCTOBER 2025
Internal Fall Gathering
At our Internal Fall Gathering in 2025, we used tactile and visual tools to reflect on the past year . Community agreements go up on clothes pins, memories on the Dream Tree, roles turn into party hats, etc!
We are currently digitally releasing individual pieces from Issue 0: Source on a rolling basis. Mini print editions of curated subsets of work will be published over the next few months, culminating in the release of a professionally printed complete edition.
Keep your ears open for upcoming releases, events, and workshops by joining our mailing list or following our Instagram.
Happy swimming! 〰︎