Books published by Stepsister Press, LLC

Museums Are Dead.They fell victim to torch-bearing mobs, looters, and the vociferous contempt of political and religious groups. But perhaps also through insular pedagogies, inequitable practices, and a lack of representation or transparency, museums contributed to their own demise.In our current social climate, it has become critical that we, as students, teachers, employees and participants of the museum, reflect on our roles within the white marble walls of the establishments we hold dear. The articles in the following pages represent the curiosity, research, perspective and tenacity required to lay the old museum to rest in order to allow the new museum to thrive.Together we imagine a future for these institutions untethered from the colonial ties that bind them today. We address the difficult histories of the museum whose past been marred with racism, sexism, classism, and questionable ethics. In this issue, museum practitioners tackle topics such as repatriation and inequitable labor practices through analysis of media and artifacts. Together we imagine the museum not as a lost cause, but as an opportunity to grow, to learn and to change. Enjoy reading.Long Live Museums.

Camille Grafer describes the journey she and her mother took after Mama Rose was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Recalling the life of her mother-a widow raising her only child in Chicago in the 1950s-Camille tells the story of her own transitions as a caregiver. Her loving tribute is filled with strategies for how to face this illness with generosity and humor.

Perfect Worlds: Artistic Forms & Social Imaginaries is a philosophical study of equality as binding principle by art-makers across disciplines, and how they view their work situated across unrestricted spectrums of social and ideological value. As source material for the tropes and themes of Workman's interactionist and instructional choreographic work, they are intended as a recovery of under-represented discourses, scholarly research volumes, and critic's "selected works." It also aspires to trace the contours of what more life-like art may be present - or imagined - in today's shifting social imaginaries.

Strangers in strange lands. Heroes sent to right what is wrong. Workers separated from the fruits of their labor. Scapegoats in times of fear and change. Aliens and alienation are ever present tropes in our cultures, our politics, and our lives. This issue of Fwd: Museums tells stories of estrangement and inclusion, of museums expanding beyond their walls and opening themselves to those who have been unwelcome, of museums failing to do either of these things, of institutions that must revolutionize their missions and practices, and of the workers and visitors who will make that happen. "Alien" includes provocative critiques, celebrations, hidden histories, and manifestos exploring otherness, other worlds, and other possibilities.

Strangers in strange lands. Heroes sent to right what is wrong. Workers separated from the fruits of their labor. Scapegoats in times of fear and change.Aliens and alienation are ever present tropes in our cultures, our politics, and our lives. This issue of Fwd: Museums tells stories of estrangement and inclusion, of museums expanding beyond their walls and opening themselves to those who have been unwelcome, of museums failing to do either of these things, of institutions that must revolutionize their missions and practices, and of the workers and visitors who will make that happen. “Alien” includes provocative critiques, celebrations, hidden histories, and manifestos exploring otherness, other worlds, and other possibilities.