We have made steady progress this week. Yay us! The original project that was proposed last semester has morphed into a different project idea but with the same theme of exploring the use of zines to amplify the voices of historically marginalized communities. Who ever knew that a mini do-it-yourself publication could be so complex! Zines come in many shapes and sizes, themes and categories and can be found through zine distributors and stores, in person zine libraries, through online zine archives and libraries, zinefests and on a variety of social media sites. We are challenged with finding metadata on zines and have also noticed that sometimes the places that collect zines focus on a specific category of zines

Last week, we attended the Reclaim the Commons meeting and had an impromptu Reclaim the Commons zine creating session. We passed out a small flyer with some information and a piece of paper folded the zine way. We asked those who were willing and interested if they could create a zine and email it to us. We used this opportunity to experiment with public zine making and we have signed up with GC PSC to offer a zine workshop. We also connected with Jenna Freeman from the Barnard Zine Library and appreciate her suggestions and offer to share some zine data.

Zico and I decided that we will be flexible with roles and know there will be lots of crossover since it is only the 2 of us. At one point this past week, I was almost at a panic attack level because I could not find the sweet spot for our project to focus on and I didn’t want to let Zico down. All I have to say is thank goodness for Zico, his humor and patience and for holding a safe space for me to throw a bunch of ideas around while we figure this out.