Archives West Finding Aid

Co-founded in 1977 by Mark Sargent (aka Animal Trust, Max Deadtoe Delaney) and Tom Cassidy (aka Spaceangel and Musicmaster), The Impossibilists were a group of artists and writers active as performers and impresarios in Portland, Oregon in the late 1970s and early '80s. The other original or core Imps were mail-artist Kay Hockett aka Rhoda Mappo, Robert Lurie aka Rider, Marti Barrett aka Reynarda Wally, Alaina Lara aka Lipps, and honorary Imp Ijme Van Sloten. Their aesthetics were primarily absurdist, and expressed in graphics, poetry, prose, several "Dada Spectaculars" (which drew hundreds of people and included performances by Ken Butler, Lowell Darling, Dana Atchley, Billy Oskay, Norman Gould, Bob Gardiner, Cees Francke, Al Ackerman, Ken Friedman etc.), comic strips, manifestos, and events, many staged at Cassidy's junkshop arcade, Keep 'Em Flying. Among the contributors to their publications were Katherine Dunn, John Shirley, John Bennett, Walt Curtis, Ken Butler, Dan Raphael, Keith Rahmmings, Scott Helmes, Bob Phillips, and SubWaxin Haddock. They continued to release ephemeral publications through the 1980s.

This collection includes a variety of Impossibilits publications.