Robert Ford

Robert Ford was a freelance journalist, publisher, and activist born and raised in Chicago. Creative Director of Rose Records, Ford was a frequent contributor to local publications like Jam Sessions, Chicago Music Magazine, Jazzgram in addition to maintaining regular columns in Planet Rock and Babble. His groundbreaking African-American-focused AIDS column ran in Pulse magazine until the time of his death in 1993. Ford collaborated with Trent Adkins and Laurence Warren to found Think Ink, an arts magazine that was, “very Black, not very gay but queer-friendly.” The publishing trio unleashed THING into the world shortly thereafter. Running from 1989-1993, THING – “She Knows Who She Is” – became legendary in ‘zine communities, with distribution quantities ultimately rising to 3,000. Ford announced the final THING after the publication of the 10^th issue, in order to focus on freelance writing projects.