'Mapazine' founded to join cultures

September 1, 2008

When asked what Marika Ley likes about running her own magazine, she replies, "I like making people think."
Provokator (www.provokator.org) is a free tri-lingual "mapazine," based in Prague and consisting of articles written by students who are interning to learn the basics of the magazine business. A new issue comes out every six weeks and features a subculture events guide, a map (which points out Provokator-approved bars and clubs around Prague) as well as topical content, in English, Czech and German, based on a monthly theme.
I first met Ley at a beer garden one lazy summer day. She was with friends of friends and we got to talking about things that mattered. I think we were both enjoying the feminine company, since finding girl friends in this country seems to be hard to do. Since then, she's known who I am. I put it that way because, before that day, I knew her.
Of course I did. Everyone east of the Vltava knew who Marika Ley was. She was the rabble-rouser with the pink hair. And who could forget her sweet little one-eyed dog, Magoo?
Ley is, self-titled, Instigator In Chief of Provokator. Upon coming to Prague in 2003, it was a short time before Ley had found friends at Think!Again magazine. Think!Again is another free magazine for English speakers in Prague. However, Ley wasn't satisfied working with a magazine that catered to only one culture and she soon left Think!Again and started her own internet 'zine at Provokator.org, which, two years later, became a fully functional magazine.
About her inspiration for Provokator, Ley says, "Something needed to happen between communities to create a world community. English publications seemed to be strictly English and Czech publications were strictly in Czech." She believes it "dictated a lack separation of cultures and lack of understanding and perception."
In creating the magazine, Ley encountered a lot of unforeseen obstacles that have helped her build up her guard against the harsh atmosphere of the entertainment business. She says her biggest challenge has been earning the respect and trust of the Czech community. When she first started, she would receive hate mail from many senders warning her to leave the scene to the Czechs. She claims one of the senders "complained of not wanting to go to his favorite bars because he would have to hear American conversation - which is interesting, because the person who wrote this e-mail makes 80 percent of his money touring American bands."
In addition to hate mail, Ley has experienced prejudice on all levels of business since she's left America. However, that doesn't concern her much anymore. These days, Ley is more concerned with unavoidable printing mishaps and recruiting interns. The bands on tour that crash at her place are not as exciting as they used to be; Ley is finding her satisfaction in teaching her interns the inner-workings of a magazine.
"Eventually. I want my internships to be like a freeware skin, applicable by others in other places," Ley explains, "the same kind of magazine with localized content."
So, along with providing entertainment, Provokator provides tourists with a guide which allows them to "be a participant in the culture rather than a tourist," Ley says, "what we've found in four years is impossible to find in just three months." And they intend to share the knowledge.
"We want to teach people how to do what we do so they can take those skills back to their own city and start up something similar there."
Provokator offers internships in reporting, layout design, editing, event participation, web design, event scouts, IT, and more. The first trial period consists of twelve weeks and two issues, after which the intern receives a certificate of completion in whatever field he/she chose. However, Ley strongly recommends staying for six months and four issues to get the full experience. "We've placed at least fifteen of our former interns in paid positions," she assures me.
Experience isn't the only benefit, of course: Interns can also get in free to many shows and events as well as "get to be a part of the community while they are here, rather than a separatist tourist or a transient resident."
Even so, multilingual students in Prague are a transient bunch, so Ley has to recruit every twelve weeks. Such is the life of a Prague indie publisher, it seems.