A pretty parcel containing several different issues has just arrived, from Germany! (Thank you!) I would describe Call My Name zine as being mostly about green living and dreaminess. There is a lot of love for nature and simple living with a respect for the earth. Like the best of perzines, it's also a zine about self reflection and trying to understand the world and yourself, and questioning things a lot, as well as strong personal beliefs and personal politics. It's a beautifully put together zine, with wonderful drawings and snipped out pictures, very dreamy.
One of the most endearing perzines (personal writing zines) in the world, Call My Name, will feature at our zine fair in Wimbledon Library tomorrow!
A pretty parcel containing several different issues has just arrived, from Germany! (Thank you!) I would describe Call My Name zine as being mostly about green living and dreaminess. There is a lot of love for nature and simple living with a respect for the earth. Like the best of perzines, it's also a zine about self reflection and trying to understand the world and yourself, and questioning things a lot, as well as strong personal beliefs and personal politics. It's a beautifully put together zine, with wonderful drawings and snipped out pictures, very dreamy.
0 Comments
Zine parcels have just arrived from Belgium, and Bradford! Thank you to Jean McEwan and Echo Publishing! What with many other contributions in person, and by post, there's a huge stash of zines waiting for everyone on Saturday. A free mini zine has been copied up, and posters have been made, sweets have been bought... William Morris oven gloves have been photocopied as well, which must be my oddest photocopier moment yet but all will become clear...
Zine industry is still afoot, as there is still just about time to make that last zine idea, I'm convinced! We're all really looking forward to colourful displays of zines, interesting conversations, and a general air of creative celebration. Internet stuff has been quiet for SWZines as a project, but zine reading and making has remained active, with ideas and talk continually flowing, and new connections and inspiration instilled. Between our last update, and this blog, I am sad to report that we experienced the passing of legendary editor of A Short Fanzine About Rocking: Nick Mann. Nick's long‐running, well respected fanzines went way back, as I remember his fanzines being mentioned on the radio in the early 2000s: they were stocked in the great Banquet Records in Kingston, and SW Zines regularly carried and sold Nick's zines at events around London. In Nick, zines have lost real heart and soul. There are plans to carry on celebrating Nick's zines, including through archive work, so expect blog updates here and elsewhere about this. I feel it more important than ever to be involved in zines and be active about zines. There are still so many opportunities to introduce people to zines and open up that world of freedom, expression, understanding, inspiration, of giving everyone a platform; a voice. It has long been a dream to instigate a zine fair in a public library in SW London, and now it is, at last, a reality. I'm excited to report that we have booked a cosy corner of Wimbledon public library to host our first zine fair! On Saturday 14th November, at Wimbledon Zine Fair, zine makers from all over London, as well as from Croydon, Dorset, and Brazil will be hosting tables of their zines, which you can browse and buy. There will also be zines on sale from: Bradford, Nottingham, Germany, Belgium, and Australia (so far!).
Joining us will be:
... amongst many other brilliant, creative people. We are also hoping to be joined by The Feminist Library (London). We will have a rare array of zines from the last of Marching Stars Distro's stock, as they are about to close down. We have carefully planned a wide range of ephemera, including: perzines (personal zines), music zines, travel zines, poetry zines, art zines, gardening/eco zines, and more, with library visitors in mind. We want to introduce you to zines if they are new to you, and libraries seem an ideal environment. Since it happens to be World Vegan Month, we will be giving away free vegan sweets. In addition, there will be a table of vegan and vegetarian zines and information to inspire. The setting is a Victorian public library, dating back to 1886, from the arts and crafts era, so there is also chance to enjoy the space, and appreciate the library stock. Our extremely grateful thanks to the artist Lisa Stockley, for her creation of our official zine fair poster, resplendent with merry wombling! She would love to be paid for art commissions, so do check out her website. Any questions, ideas, suggestions, or to RSVP, please just get in touch! We are now taking names of distros and individuals who wish to have FREE SELLING SPACE at our zine social at Housmans radical book shop, Kings Cross, on Saturday December 7th.
Please email us now to guarantee your spot at this zine event, as you will not be able to just turn up on the night! This is a zine social, so if you read zines and want to come meet their makers, eat cake, drink a beer, in this amazing book shop, please just turn up on the night from 7pm, entry free, all welcome. SW Zines are keen on zine events. We travel across London for anything DIY related, but daydream of xerox-related adventures further afield: Canada, Australia, Japan, Chile, what a zine tour that would make...! One day on Twitter we heard about the Bradford zine collective Loosely Bound – the group were opening up a temporary 'pop up' shop for a week: Bradford Baked Zines. We jumped at the chance to send our zines over to be stocked in the shop. Enjoying a rare sunny day in London's Hoxton square, after printing zines in the nearby art library, a couple of members of SW Zines considered taking a trip up north to check out the shop, unsure if the logistics of fares and work shifts would allow it. As we contemplated the idea, Loosely Bound’s Jean McEwan invited us up to do a talk about our Zine collective in the south. On the spot, we knew we had to commit to this, and make it work. With a shuffle of shifts, we were on our way to setting out on our first zine adventure outside of London. People kept saying: ‘Why do you want to go to Bradford?’ It was not a place I had considered visiting, sadly reputations are far stronger than the reality of a place. We said: ‘Why not?’ and early on Friday morning caught the first of three trains to the west Yorkshire city. Walking through Bradford's streets, getting a feel for the place, we felt completely open and free of expectations other than lots of lovely zines. Within five minutes, we were standing in front of a spacious, bright, main street, 'pop-up' shop, resplendent with home-made lettering in the window: 'WHAT IS A ZINE?' From the moment we arrived we were greeted with warmth, and the creative air helped my nerves about the talk fade. Zines lined every shelf, by the time the talks began we each had a pile stacked up to take home (and a month later are still reading!). Next door, the craft shop Handmade in Bradford offered even more treats and browsing. We were left wishing we could buy even more, and it almost made us late for the first talk of the evening at the zine shop! There was a zine library, and I smiled to spot zines by people I respect who make zines I enjoy. Hedgehog in the Fog, + Here in My Head perzines! Jean McEwan of Loosely Bound's amazing Mark E Smith zine! We swapped Fall fanzines :) Legendary indie pop zine, Ablaze, from the 1990s. SWZines' wares, on sale, below..... Glad to be up last for our very first zine talk together, since it gave us time to build up our confidence, and be inspired by the other speakers, the informal atmosphere made the circle of faces less daunting. Hearing the hard work behind How Do? Magazine was heartening and fascinating, and learning about the poetry and unique publishing methods of Longbarrow Press (including their evolution from photocopying, after-hours, at work till the early morning light!) made us smile. Though it felt like our voices were shaking and stumbling, as our zines were passed around and the collective and our history of zine-making and ambitions were explained (one of us completely new to zines; one of us quite the old hand), the thirty minutes and heart hammering was over... and the closing party began! There was a zine tombola, music - and bingo led by bus conductors, with quirky photographs of them as prizes! Our day in
Bradford reached its end far too quickly. With only the next morning left, we got up early, breakfasted in a local pub, then went over and bought many more zines and beautiful handmade crafts in both Handmade Bradford and Bradford Baked Zines shop. We had time to stop and chat at the zine shop, and make more new acquaintances, then said our sad goodbyes. We found it very difficult to leave and we both agreed that we certainly must to go back to this city, with its array of active artists and wonderfully invented, creative, activities and outlets. We wish to thank Jean McEwan and the Loosely Bound Collective of Bradford for warmly welcoming us, and for affording us the opportunity to go to Bradford and meet an amazing bunch of zine-makers, in a brilliant, lively setting. May councils everywhere take note that endeavours like this really make for attractive assets to any town or city. A whole other blog post is warranted to do Handmade Bradford justice for its incredible beautiful wares - coming soon! Apologies for the tardiness of this blog, but once we returned to London from our travels up north, we were literally caught up in a whirlwind of further zine events and creative activity which simply took over! Here's to more zine travels for SW Zines! Loosely Bound Handmade Bradford We are knee-deep in zine preparation for Clapton Zine Fair! Clapton in east London has its first zine fair this coming weekend of 4th - 5th May. There will be a launch night, with live music, poetry, zines, and art on display, on Saturday. And there will be a free zine market all day long on Sunday! SW Zines was invited along, after the organisers bought one of our zines at Housemans book shop, and we are thrilled! See you there! Clapton Zine Fair official site SW Zines felt very privileged to have a stall at DIY Cultures Fair, a new independent publishing/zine/craft event, which took place at RichMix cinema, in London's east end. The weeks leading up to it were spent in photocopying frenzies at libraries, getting photos processed, flyering and promoting, and folding and stapling and sticking and stamping away. We were excited to be stocking new zines from Surrey, including mental health and travel zines from Human Bean Zines (We Are Adventurers, and Feeling Alone?, which can be viewed on our zines page), and from Michael Weller (a long-standing self-publisher who has been with zines/independent press since 1977/punk and who is full of great stories and knowledge). We were also promoting for the new charity TeamStrick, a sexual assualt support and awareness group linked to the campaign group RAINN, and a member of SW Zines had worked hard to make their first ever zine in aid of this cause (donations were taken on the day for the charity). (Zines ready for the off!) A couple of us tabled at the fair. We felt welcomed by the organisers, and even in those first few seconds of arrival, we could tell how much dedication and work had gone into organising and putting DIY Cultures Fair together. You can never, ever underestimate how much work it takes to do this stuff! From making a zine to hosting a table and selling your wares to something as big as holding and promoting an event - it all takes huge energy and commitment. It was nice to find that we were once again tabling next to Sky Nash with her illustrated press and assorted wares, and we got to know new people around us too, such as Alovera comics. (Our table and assorted 'zines on sale) There were talks and film throughout the day. It was nice to be in the thick of such events whilst tabling, as usually at events such things go on in separate rooms and you can't feasibly leave your table to be involved. The first talk was by Black Feminists, and it was really stirring. I enjoyed the historical rundown of black women and women of colour bands - I had to note some names down as I was surprised to not have heard of some of them, such as post-punk band ESG, and New Blood. It was moving to see a big projection of Ari Up, and have tribute to The Slits' history too.
More moving still was hearing about the unfair barriers women all over the world face when it comes to music/bands. I was sad to hear about Pragaash, a group of teenage Muslim women who had had no choice but to disband after they received death and rape threats by Islamic militants after performing as a band, because they were deemed to be breaking religious codes of conduct. The song they played on the video screen was such a sweet indie-pop tune, such talented kids - I wanted to cry.You can read more about them here. That's the thing, sometimes it's easy for people to assume women have equality nowadays when there are some visible female pop stars, but circumstances and issues like this don't often get widely addressed/recognised. Thank you to the wonderful speakers of Black Feminists for their excellent talk - Stephanie Phillips, Aurella Yussuf and Rianna Parker were so authoritative and articulate and inspiring. Other talks throughout the day included ones on unemployment (I thoroughly enjoyed the guy who had turned stand up comedian after so many dispiriting experiences on the dole (Saban Kazim of Gissa Job Zine, who made a zine on the actual paper that you use when you are filling out your job search). I learnt a lot this day. You see things in a new light, and it's so important. Here how the language of unemployment has changed - eg it was once known as 'social security', something solid that we should all be able to seek out in times of dire need, now it is known as 'welfare' as if people are getting a hand out and it actually helps them when really it is a fight to live on the paltry sum alloted. Other speakers here were Sarah Tea-Rex (Graduating in Unemployment Zine), and Robin Bale (Dole arts). The film about DIY artists was great too, which was DIY or Die (how to survive as an independent artist, featuring Ian Mckaye of Fugazi & Lydia Lunch). It will stay with me this quote even if I can only paraphrase it a little, which is how people might not 'get it' (your work) at first, they might find it weird and it might not fit in, but have to keep persisting with your work, because there will come a time when it isn't new or weird and someone out there 'gets it'. Very true. The panel on Prisoner Zines, Writing & Creavity was also enlightening. And there was a discussion about 'craftivism' which perhaps I hadn't quite fully appreciated till now, but will investigate, since I protest and am creative so combining both is an ideal. Since there were two of us on the stall (thank you so much Vicky for your hard work and help here! Really could not have done it without you!!!), there was opportunity to explore other stalls and talk to other small press/zine makers. I always enjoy the sharing of info with people at these events. I recommended independent printers, art/zine libraries, zines, I swapped flyers and learnt about others' work (zines and far and beyond), and I bought many, many wonderful, amazing creations. A week on, I have caught up on rest/sleep, and am still enjoying reading all the many zines I bought. The breadth of perspectives you get with zines is simply unique, and it keeps me sane in a chaotic and unaccepting world. Here's to more events from Sofia Niazi, Hamja Ahsan (who let's not forget make 'zines too! Go here and here), and their friends and many volunteers (let's also not forget how many kindly volunteers were involved!), in the near future! Now... go and read a 'zine! DIY Cultures
|
SW Zines blogRead about SW Zines activities and latest news here. Categories
All
|