We wish to inform our readers and supporters that after 10 years of publishing in print and online, Hard Crackers is closing up shop. This announcement brings with it a mix of pride and sadness: pride for lasting 10 years – more than many! – and sadness that it must come to an end.
Launched in May 2016, Hard Crackers was the brainchild of the late Noel Ignatiev, who gathered a motley crew of comrades and associates to form an editorial board and get it off the ground. Noel steadfastly maintained that the so-called ordinary people of our world hold in their grasp the potential to be extraordinary in all endeavors, including the pursuit of revolutionary change to form a new liberated society.
Hard Crackers was founded as a primarily print publication. In the first blog post on hardcrackers.com, describing the project, Noel wrote, “The Internet has its place, but paper carries a permanency and weight no digital form can equal.” To date, Hard Crackers has published 9 print issues and one special issue, a tribute to Noel. Our most recent print issue was in Fall 2022. All print issues will remain available for purchase from PM Press while supplies last.
After Noel’s death in 2019 and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic, those who remained, plus a few more, focused considerably more attention on the Hard Crackers website, where we have published more than 500 articles on a wide range of topics from a slew of writers. Curious readers and researchers can search all of these by category or keyword from the website’s Archives page.
Throughout its existence, Hard Crackers sought to chronicle everyday life, both to demonstrate that a better world is possible and to examine the barriers to it, including the barriers that have been erected by those who must build it. From our post “Redefining Hard Crackers” in December 2018:
Hard Crackers is not alone in its conviction that we need to be alert to the possibilities of “the beach under the pavement” or “the future in the present.” Dramatic events that appear to have come from nowhere often have much in common with earlier developments that have eaten away at the consensus of accommodation with misery that appears so often to be the norm. Of course, it’s hard to know what will come of what goes on and some moments that appear to be full of future promise will turn out to have short lives. Nonetheless, it seems wise to carefully observe what people actually do in situations like natural/social disasters (of which we have way too many) or instances of official crimes that go without consequence (like murders by police officers) and to appreciate that the potentials may not be exhausted in the short run. Large organized actions are more easily recognized but small, maybe almost invisible acts of individuals or communities also deserve attention. The significance of all those moments deserves to be explored and debated. For Hard Crackers, the explorations and debates will primarily be done through the stories our contributors have to tell.
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For ten years, we have shared these stories with our readers, faithful or not. Although we are ceasing to exist as an editorial board, all of us editors continue to believe that attentiveness to daily lives is essential for those who would like to imagine how to act purposefully to change the world. In our individual and collective lives, we will continue to be inspired by and to act in accordance with this conviction.
We are immensely thankful to the many writers and artists who have contributed to Hard Crackers over the years — truly, it would not have existed without you. We are also grateful to our website manager, Sam Stoker, and the designer for our print issues, Margot Spindelman. And we cannot overstate our appreciation for those who have generously donated money to the project over the years. All funds remaining in the Hard Crackers treasury will go toward maintaining the Hard Crackers website for a few years and, during this time span, hopefully preserving and archiving the majority of its contents, as well as making available PDFs of all print issues. Proceeds of all print issue sales will remain with PM Press, whose work of putting radical thought and ideas in print is arguably more important than ever.
In the introductory Hard Crackers post mentioned above, Noel concluded, “Hard Crackers will be represented by the totality of what it publishes over time.” As we arrive at the bittersweet end of this time, we thank you all for coming along with us on the journey, and we implore you to keep looking for the cracks in the pavement. May we all find a new world there, or somewhere.
— The Hard Crackers Editorial Board