Pop-Up Magazine is a live performance magazine. The live shows focus on breaking multimedia stories performed on stage by writers, radio producers, photographers, filmmakers, and musicians. The events are not live-streamed or recorded for later viewing.

Pop-Up Magazine
Company typeLive magazine
Founded2009 Edit this on Wikidata
ParentEmerson Collective
Websitepopupmagazine.com

Pop-Up Magazine events are currently produced two to three times a year and routinely sell out.[1] The events usually contain an average of 12 short stories, with production running approximately 100 minutes.[2]

Each story is designed specifically for a live format, often using unconventional media for journalism. Levels are performed alongside photographs, animations, illustrations, or film, and many are accompanied by an original score performed live by Magik*Magik Orchestra.[3]

History edit

Pop-Up Magazine was founded in San Francisco in 2009[4] by Douglas McGray, Lauren Smith, Derek Fagerstrom,[5] Evan Ratliff, and Maili Holiman.[6]

McGray says the idea for the show came from trying to get different kinds of storytellers and artists together in the same room. "Filmmakers have their film openings, artists will have gallery openings, and writers will have their readings. And we're never at the same things together. We thought about the idea of a live magazine as a way to bring these different communities together and bring their communities of fans together."[2]

The first Pop-Up Magazine show took place in 2009 at the 360-seat Brava Theater in San Francisco's Mission District. In 2010 Pop-Up Magazine grew to a 900-seat auditorium, and the audience reached 2,600in 2011.

Pop-Up Magazine went on its first national tour in 2015, with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and New York City[7] The show toured again in the spring of 2016, before a live audience of 10,000 people, in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland.[8]

Pop-Up Magazine held its farewell tour in 2023, with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.[9]

Collaborations edit

Pop-Up Magazine occasionally partners with organizations and public figures for special performances outside its own tours. In 2011, they collaborated with SFMOMA for a show about wine[10] and ESPN the Magazine[11] for a show about sports. In 2013, they produced a night of stories and live music inspired by Beck's Song Reader', a collection of sheet music written by Beck and published by McSweeneys.[12] In 2015, they curated Session 8 of TED2015 in Vancouver, producing 11 stories performed on TED's main stage.[13]

The California Sunday Magazine edit

Pop-Up Magazine is produced by California Sunday, Inc., which published an online and print magazine called The California Sunday Magazine from 2014 to 2020. McGray launched the magazine with publisher Chas Edwards in October 2014. McGray said: "We started a media company. We approached it like a story production company. Some of the things we'd make would be live experiences, live stories, and some of the things we'd make would be stories for you to read at home."[14]

In 2016, the magazine won a National Magazine Award for overall excellence in print magazine photography.[15] Other finalists included National Geographic, New York, Vanity Fair, and The Wall Street Journal.

Past contributors edit

References edit

  1. ^ Bech, Lene (April 2015). "The power of Pop-Up Magazine's live journalism". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  2. ^ a b "No Recording Allowed At Pop-Up Magazine Shows". NPR.org. November 21, 2011. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  3. ^ "Pop-Up Magazine Presents Stories for All Five Senses". East Bay Express. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  4. ^ Carroll, Jon (October 12, 2015). "Here today, gone already: It's 'Pop-Up Magazine'!". San Francisco Chronicle.
  5. ^ Mason, Laura (February 23, 2011). "Bay Area Power Couples: Derek Fagerstrom & Lauren Smith of Pop-Up Magazine and The Curiosity Shoppe". 7x7.
  6. ^ LaCroix, Jeremy (November 9, 2010). "Three Questions With Maili Holiman, DD, Pop Up Magazine". SPD.
  7. ^ Richards, Kathleen (September 1, 2015). "Tickets for Pop-Up Magazine Go on Sale Today". The Stranger.
  8. ^ Shin, Nara (March 21, 2016). "Pop-Up Magazine Tour". Cool Hunting. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  9. ^ "Pop-Up Magazine: One More Time". Pop-Up Magazine.com. February 1, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  10. ^ Kauffman, Jonathan. "Sidebar: SFMOMA's Live Pop-Up Magazine Looks at Wine". sfweekly.com.
  11. ^ "Pop-Up: The Magazine You Can't Hold Comes to New York City". wnyc.org.
  12. ^ "Pop-Up Magazine's "The Song Reader Issue" Celebrates Music Written, Remembered, and Reinvented". kqed.org.
  13. ^ "Pop-Up Magazine: The engrossing talks of Session 8 of TED2015". ted.com. 19 March 2015.
  14. ^ "Pop-Up Magazine Is A Here-Today, Gone-Tomorrow Experiment In Storytelling". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  15. ^ "ELLIE AWARDS 2016 WINNERS ANNOUNCED – ASME". www.magazine.org. Archived from the original on 2016-11-15. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  16. ^ a b Vankin, Deborah (November 17, 2014). "Pop-Up Magazine: Live storytelling with no digital footprint". LA Times.
  17. ^ "Pop-Up Magazine". Town Hall Seattle. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  18. ^ Walters, Pat. "Work: Pop-Up Magazine". patwalters.net. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  19. ^ a b c Henriksen, Erik (October 19, 2015). "Win Tickets to Pop-Up Magazine's Portland Show!". Portland Mercury. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  20. ^ Odio, Jesy (October 30, 2014). "Pop-Up Magazine (Actually a Live Performance) Comes to L.A." Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  21. ^ Druckman, Charlotte (2016-04-08). "An Herby Persian Frittata From Michael Pollan's Chef Teacher". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-04-13.

External links edit