Hearing Voices, Writing Down What They Say
Check out these Party Pics by Jayme Halbritter or these Posed VIP Party Pics" by Tony Nelson. Plus some bonus pics. All fashions made out of City Pages designed by dj gramann II

This anniversary supplement started as an idea for something else entirely, a modest assemblage of City Pages cover art through the years that could serve as a backdrop to the paper's 25^th anniversary parties. Pick 15 or 20 covers that stand out, Mark and Anna said, and we'll make them into posters. I couldn't do it. For one thing, CP art directors in the early days rarely had the means to do covers that stood up through the years in purely graphic terms. That was the age of black-and-white printing on creaky presses that, often as not, turned even the most glorious photos and art into muddy messes. So an "art" show per se was bound to leave out too much.

But as I pored through volume after bound volume of old issues, I saw that they told a story--of the paper's history, sure, but more than that the history of these towns of ours. So why not use cover art to try to sketch that story? This collection is what came out of it. It hung for a month at Calhoun Square, and later at a few Art-a-Whirl events. And it reflects, I think, what City Pages has always done best: capturing and bearing witness to not just the events of the hour but also the tenor of our public conversations about music, art, politics, ideas. A lot of very fine journalists and critics have hung their hats here at one time or another, and their voices have gone a long way toward defining where we have been and where we're going. But the most important voices have been yours--quoted, echoed, argued with, recorded for posterity. Granted, it was only a week's worth of posterity, but hey. It's a tough world. You take what you can get. We hope you've enjoyed the ride half as much as we have, and thank you.

Steve Perry, Editor

And special thanks to the art directors of Sweet Potato/City Pages across the years: David Steinlicht, Holle Brian, Lisa Blackshear, Don Besom, Cornelia Bremer, the former Sandra Askov, Kim Klein, Cynthia Henry, Mike Hopp, Phil Tippin, Jacky Wilson, Kim Dalros, J. Matthew Rhea, Corey Anderson, Jessica Meihack, Nick Vlcek.