Oh No! Showpaper Has Shut Down
So much for 2015 being less of an unrelenting bummer for Brooklyn’s DIY scene. SHOWPAPER, that lovable scrappy bi-weekly newspaper that showcased upcoming concerts and contemporary visual artists, has officially shut down. For almost a decade, the colorful fold-out has been a ubiquitous site at shows, listing underground and DIY events at tiny venues or private residences, as well as featuring the work of Brooklyn artists on the cover.
“The SHOWPAPER team have toiled for over seven years now to produce a new, beautiful, free, advertising-free newsprint issue of SHOWPAPER every two weeks, without fail, over 190 issues! – and it is with heavy hearts that we now stop publication,” the organizers wrote on their Facebook page. “We make this difficult decision out of exhaustion at the challenge of funding and producing the newspaper, but we are hopeful that sometime in the near future, after a well-deserved break, we may revive the concept of SHOWPAPER in a new format…Please keep going to shows, starting bands, putting on shows, and opening venues – you can DO IT YOURSELF.”
It’s an enormous blow against the DIY scene, already gravely wounded by the closures of venues like 285 Kent, Death by Audio, and Glasslands. Over the years, SHOWPAPER was one of the Brooklyn DIY scene’s most able chroniclers. Their missed connections section, for example, was unfailingly great. And the covers! What gems. Here are just a couple:
R.I.P. SHOWPAPER. We’ll miss you a whole lot.