Join us for Founder’s Weekend
November 14 - 17 in Philadelphia!

We are ALL Founders
What do we want the next 250 years of our country to look like?

DISCUSSION & RECEPTION
“Free Your Mind, Your Art Will Follow” at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression with Joe Boruchow (Visual Artist, Musician, and Inquirer Columnist), Jeannine Cook (Author and Founder of Harriet’s Bookstore), Angel Eduardo (Artist, Musician, FIRE Senior Writer), Franklin Einspruch (Painter, Dissident Muse Substack, and Founder DissidentMUSEum), Alice York (Actor, Writer, and Founder Lightning Rod Special), and Lincoln Jones (Dancer, Founder of American Contemporary Ballet)

FRANKLIN LECTURE
Nicholas Christakis, director of the Yale Human Nature Lab, on his book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society at Old Swedes’ Church

BRAVER ANGELS WORKSHOP AND UNITY PICNIC
Braver Angels Red/Blue Workshop and Speech by John Wood, Jr., national ambassador of Braver Angels // Music by Deb Montgomery at Old Swedes’ church

Sponsorships and Advertising Available


A joy to leaf through—and read. It is heavily illustrated, with a mix of photographs, drawings, and comic panels, and it makes creative use of typography. The content includes an eclectic mix of essays, fiction, interviews, reviews, and recipes, making for a strong new title.
— LIBRARY JOURNAL
A high-production arts and culture affair with fiction, poetry and essays... A New Yorker for Philly? Root Quarterly pulls inspiration from higher-brow general interest magazines like Harper’s, the Atlantic, California Sunday Magazine and the London-based Riposte.
— BILLY PENN

The Root Quarterly Fund
for
Regenerative Media


A homerun.
— Meghan Daum, HOST OF 'THE UNSPEAKABLE' AND AUTHOR OF 'THE PROBLEM WITH EVERYTHING'

SUMMER


2024

“SUB ROSA”

BUY THE ISSUE NOW //

SUBSCRIBE TO ROOT QUARTERLY

DON’T MISS:
Ideas Editor Walter Foley explores the conspiracy that brought down Gawker // Diana Lu on bowling together and the importance of “third spaces” // A recommendation for a tour of three gardens // Lauren Earline Leonard unveils the inner workings of freemasonry, the Masonic Temple, and the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness // Roberto Quezada-Dardon on the secrets that still haunt San Cristobal // An ode to thorns by Marianne Moore // Sarah Hartman-Caverly uncovers the perils of not-so-secret online sex in the era of AI // Courtney Hunter-Stangler on the intersection of mental health, confession, and religiosity // Rev. Christopher Micklewright explores why we confess, and whether sin can be systemic // Editor Heather Shayne Blakeslee on artist Peter Paone’s Brandywine Museum show that includes his “Ten Commandments” series // Criticism of the art degree and the downfall of UArts by Iona Clark // Interview with Rebecca Saylor Sacks // Notes on Jay Kirk’s memoir Avoid the Day //


An ambitious, meticulously designed publication about arts, culture, politics, food, and Philadelphia. It offers journalism, fiction, poetry, photographs, graphics, and personal essays by a diverse and youthful crew of creatives... Clearly, RQ also is a place for writers to stretch, or perhaps meander, and for readers willing to follow.
— THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Glorious. This is exactly what we need right now... This is our better angels and we owe it to ourselves, and all of us—and our future—to engage with art, and with science, with truth and with beauty, with honor, and without division.
— Heather Heying, DARKHORSE PODCAST
Brilliant! I loved the entire enterprise
— Glenn Loury, ECONOMIST AND HOST OF THE GLENN SHOW

 

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PARTNERS

FREE BLACK THOUGHT // KOSMOS: JOURNAL OF GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION // THE PLURALISM AND CIVIL EXCHANGE PROGRAM AT THE MERCATUS CENTER // THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN

 


 

ON SENSE MAKING AND SLOW MEDIA

Don’t miss Publisher and Editor Heather Shayne Blakeslee on the UnityNow! podcast talking about civics, the necessity of slow media, the dangers of big tech, and Pennsylvania politics.

 

WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE MISSING?

We’re pleased to announce that RQ was named by Library Journal as a best new magazine the year we launched! Check out the full article here. Their top-ten picks also included the U.S. edition of London’s The Spectator, a Copenhagen-based Scandinavian art and architecture magazine, and a title that covers global female skateboarding culture. We’re delighted to have Philadelphia in the mix, and that we were featured with a profile in the Philadelphia Inquirer, who called us “ambitious” and “meticulously designed.”

We were also given a wonderful review on the Darkhorse Podcast by Heather Heying, who called us, “Exactly what we need right now… glorious,” and encouraged readers all around the country and world to subscribe and support our work. We were also just given a lovely review in the Write Now Philly blog, who noted that we were here, “to cultivate a community that challenges beliefs and opens new conversations. Each issue also features a creative theme tying together all selected pieces.”

To find out more about our origin story you can hear founder Heather Shayne Blakeslee on the Artblog Podcast, or read her interview with Mr. Magazine. Billy Penn also reported on RQ’s launch last spring. We want to give a giant THANK YOU to the wonderful group of people who celebrated with us. Enjoy the photos and video now.

 

YOUR SUPPORT WILL HELP US SUCCEED

Your financial support helps us continue to produce an insightful publication and grow into a community. A monthly contribution directly to our project is the best way to support us, but if you need for your investment to be tax deductible, we’re happy to take donations via our fiscal sponsorship with CultureWorks. Visit our Support RQ page to learn more. Thank you for considering an investment of the mid-Atlantic region’s most exciting publication. Print is dead. Long live print.

SUBSCRIBE OR GET SINGLE ISSUES NOW TO BECOME PART OF OUR COMMUNITY