Black Oak Presents: A Quarterly Journal of Mid-American Culture

In our Spring 2010 issue, Black Oak brings you an exclusive interview with Jan Stover, Founder and Director of The Mothers Institute. Jan tells us how her organization is working with mothers all over Illinois to educate their children in the principles of liberty.

Black Oak Presents is packed full of opinions, artistry, and writing from America’s heartland. In this issue we feature a review of Minsk’s new album With Echoes in the Movement of Stone, as well as profiles of other local artists. This issue also contains art, fiction, and photography by Ann Coddington Rast, Stephen Cunningham, Camille Hawbaker, Mark Swain, and many others.

But that’s not all. William E. Feltt returns to Black Oak Presents with his short fiction, “Blank Page: A Love Story.” Through the pages of her diary, Joannie struggles to find love in a brutal world. Will expressive therapy help her overcome her intoxicating addiction, or will she succumb to the cycle of abuse?

To Enjoy Black Oak Presents:
Click on one of the options below. If you order the digital version, you will recieve a link in your e-mail in-box directing you to a secure site where you can download the issue. If you order the hard copy, the magazine will arrive at your house with a beautiful, full color cover and glossy, b/w interior pages!

As a Hard Copy (pre-orders until March 8) $5.00:

 Or download our order form to pay by check.

As a Digital (.pdf) Copy $3.50:

Here is the info about the event/sponsorship:

"The Will County Boxing Gym gives underprivileged youth a chance to spend their extra time at a safe place from morning to night. We give kids a chance to get off the streets and do something besides hanging around people who are a bad influence on them. We give people a chance to take out their stress, pain, anger and any other feelings on the punching bags or in the ring. Not only is it stopping them from fighting in the streets or at school but it increases their confidence.

On April 17th 2010 we are going to host an event at the Will County Boxing Gym. The event is from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the first bell rings at 7 p.m. Numerous teenagers will have matches that night. It’s going to be fun and very entertaining. We will have a live D.J, food, drinks and will broadcast the event thought out Will County community channels, including Bolingbrook, Joliet, Shorewood and many more.

www.willcountyboxing.com

So please, help out. This will have a big impact and doesn't require a whole lot of commitment. If you wish to donate, you can do so through this link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6XN26YW8V5KG2 or click on the button below.

By Michael Kleen

Since we released the first issue of Black Oak Presents over three years ago, it has been one uphill battle after another, but we have come a long way. We started with a simple vision: to provide a vehicle for the artists, writers, poets, photographers, musicians, and philosophers hailing from the "flyover states." Since that time, we have not deviated from this vision.
    
In my inaugural editorial in our Winter 2007 issue (we used to start the issues on January 1), I wrote:

"I had been brought up in the Britney Spears culture, a culture of fashion and trend, where a girl was groomed from her earliest days in the Mickey Mouse Club to become a sex idol as soon as she reached maturity. She was marketed, sold to an eager populace trained to buy anything that was 'new,' and then discarded, where her tragic personal life became a sideshow amusement while a new trend ascended the throne of the almighty dollar.
    
We at Black Oak Media say, 'NO' to this culture of greed and human waste. We do not believe culture should be marketed, packaged, and sold like dog food. We do not listen to those who say Middle America is worthless— nothing more than a vast sea of consumers with their hands reaching for scraps of urbanity.
    
A not-so-silent groundswell has reached our metaphorical shores. Rising from our villages, towns, cities and farm fields, we have reawakened an ancestral hunger for a genuine cultural identity. An identity that reaffirms life, not reduces it to stock options and cashier’s checks."

The affirmation of life—such a small but important notion! What does it mean to affirm life? To feel alive and vibrant? To feel like your own existence is worthwhile? It cannot be known without art. Art is a completely human endeavor; ever since our distant ancestors blew colored chalk around their hands on cave walls. We need art just as much as we need love or a sense of belonging. Without expression and creativity, without art, we wither on the vine.

And is that not at the bottom of the problem we face today? We are told by every outlet of media that the entire human experience is reducible to our base impulses. Produce and consume. Produce and consume. Produce and consume. That is the end goal of all our life activities. Where are the redeeming qualities in that?

So this is my appeal to you, dear reader. Help us affirm life in our publication. It doesn't matter how small your town is. It doesn't matter if you've never been published, recorded an album, or hung a painting in a gallery. We care about you, and we want to hear from you. While you are ignored by the mainstream media, we seek you out. There is an ocean of talent out there just waiting to be seen.

And maybe, just maybe, through our celebration of local talent from the "flyover states," we can dispel the malaise that hangs over our lives. This is an ambitious cultural project to be certain, and one for which not everyone will be cut out. It takes courage to go against the grain, but it also takes the good sense to realize that simply being "different" or "extreme" for the sake of it is no better than the alternative.

Do you have the courage to pick up this banner and fight for a better, fuller, and more life-affirming culture in Mid-America? I hope you do, because we can't do this alone.

• Postmodern deconstruction of Western Culture and how it de-beautifies a people’s art, architecture, towns, homes and their very lives.
• The unique Midwestern brand of legends and folklore, the messages among them and their effects on the local culture.
• How self-reliance can be a repelling force to the continuing encroachment of the federal government into the lives of ordinary people.
• The persistent threat of totalitarianism. How it creeps into a population’s mindset and takes over its organic institutions.
• Self-sufficiency as a way out of America’s current economic-cultural malaise or what Mike describes as “Modern Feudalism.”

Download/listen to the interview: Full Interview - 13 MB / 32 kbps mono / 0 hour 56 min



Haunting the Prairie - $12.95

Haunting the Prairie contains 130 mystery sites and 60 individual illustrations, plus the only bibliographic timeline of paranormal and folklore research in Illinois over the past century. In Haunting the Prairie, Michael Kleen not only examines the sites, but also the hobbyists and professionals who have devoted their lives to exploring the strange and unusual in our great state. Divided among eight distinct regions and listed by county, each location features a description, directions, and sources drawn from a diverse variety of books and articles where the reader can find out more information. Haunting the Prairie challenges you to get off the couch and start exploring our wonderful State of Illinois. Click here to order.

One Voice - $8.00

One Voice is a new collection of columns and editorials by Black Oak Media's own Michael Kleen. Topics include: Consumerism and its harm to our society, the importance of individual liberty, the importance of individual responsibility to family and community, victim-mentality and why it is harmful to the individual, how to solve drug abuse without throwing everyone in prison, how we can apply ancient wisdom to modern life, and much more! Click here to order.

Black Oak Presents - $4.50 $3.25

In our Summer 2009 issue, Black Oak Presents brings you an exclusive interview with Hart D. Fisher, mastermind behind the cultural storm that is American Horrors. Hart shares his story from controversial indie comic publisher in Champaign, Illinois, to the release of his brand new horror film The Garbage Man. Also, in this first issue made available in print, we feature music reviews and a profile of Rockford punk band The Proles! alongside art and photography by artists such as Kieran McGonnell, Jane Linders, and Jennica Abrams. Click here to order.

Legends and Lore of Illinois: Case Files Vol. 1 - $14.95

Published since January 2007, the Legends and Lore of Illinois has been defying convention to bring you Illinois ghostlore in an exciting, informative, and occasionally controversial format that has left readers begging for more. With this new collection, you may enjoy the past two years of the Legends and Lore of Illinois in one convenient volume, distilled to its very best and featuring updated content. This unique look at Illinois ghostlore is presented in a fun, entertaining way that sheds light on the dark recesses of our imagination. Get ready to explore infamous locations such as: Bachelor's Grove, Shoe Factory Road, Airtight Bridge, Lakey's Creek, Blood's Point Road, Peck Cemetery, Resurrection Cemetery, and many more! Click here to order.