The Sit Down | Marlana Eck of Lehigh Valley Vanguard Talking Millennial Radicalism, Bernie Sanders, Citizen Media, and Working Class Activism

Today on The Sit Down we’re talking with Marlana Eck is the Founder of the Lehigh Valley Vanguard and co-founder of Rag Queen Periodical. We're talking Millennial radicalism, citizen media,  Bernie Sanders, and working class activism.

The Lehigh Valley Vanguard resides at the intersection of art and politics. The Vanguard features narratives which speculate on late capitalism, the efficacy of mainstream politics, explorations of identity, and the fetishization of market relationships (neoliberalism). 

Rag Queen Periodical, co-founded with Kailey Tedesco, features writing about the embodiment of womanhood, regardless of how that's manifested one’s life. Rag Queen deviates from neoliberal, corporate feminism; focusing instead on subverting the erasure of female agency and identity. Nuance, intersectionality, and evocative storytelling are Rag Queen’s signposts. www.RagQueenPeriodical.com/

Marlana is also President of the Board and founding member along with Rick Smith and yours truly of the Citizen Media Center. 

Marlana has published extensively on issues of class, labor, feminism, marginalization, and precarity. A small sampling of her publications include: 

- "The Responsibility of Déclassé Intellectuals" in The Déclassé Intellectual

- "Jesus Can’t Save Us From Capitalist Patriarchy: a Memoir," in Rag Queen Periodical

- How to be an Adjunct (and a Cliché)," in The Chronicle of Higher Education

- Decolonizing Writing and Critical Participation: a Year of Publishing on the Margins,” in Hybrid Pedagogy

- "Property Over People, or, What We Can Learn from Baltimore,” in Raging Chicken Press

Marlana holds a Master’s Degree in English Language and Literature from Kutztown Univesity; a Master’s in Globalization and Educational Change from Lehigh University; and, she is currently enrolled in the PhD program in Literature and Criticism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.