POC ZINE PROJECT

ZINE SPOTLIGHT: How to Stage a Coup [NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE AND FOR DISTRO]

Earlier this year Helen Luu donated her original flat for How to Stage a Coup: An Insurrection of the Underground Liberation Army (2000) to POCZP, which we scanned just in time for POCZP’s participation at Allied Media Conference in Detroit.

Yes, it’s here!!!

READ & SHARE ‘HOW TO STAGE A COUP’

POCZP’s mission is to make zines by people of color easy to find, distribute and share. We are thrilled to share this legacy zine with the world in digital form and will be providing (sliding-scale priced) print copies at all Race Riot! tour events this fall.

HTSAC will be free for all POC attendees at Race Riot! tour events.

***This zine is best viewed online or via mobile in full-screen mode***

TITLE: How to Stage a Coup: An Insurrection of the Underground Liberation Army

EDITOR: Helen Luu

PUBLISHED: 2000

DESCRIPTION BY POCZP TOUR MEMBER MIMI THI NGUYEN IN 2000:

Helen Luu recently edited a compilation zine called How To Stage A Coup, aimed at creating a dialogue among people of color involved in subcultural pursuits (including punk rock) around race, racism and politics. Contributors like Lauren Martin (You Might As Well Live, Quantify), Lynn Hou (Cyanide), Celia Prez (I Dreamed I Was Assertive), Elizabeth Martinez (Colorlines) and Vincent Chung address a wide variety of issues from organizing and identity politics, to activist dynamics and punk rock betrayals. What does it mean to look at the photographs of Third World suffering on the covers of grindcore records? What does it mean to talk about “pride”? Where was the “color” in Seattle/WTO? What comes first – “being brown or being famous”? The contributors to this compilation ask important questions that need asking, again and again, and Helen Luu brings it all together.

Click here for the rest of Mimi’s interview, and check out Helen’s DJ projects as MissRuckus.

DO YOU WANT TO DISTRO ‘HOW TO STAGE A COUP’?

We announced on our Facebook page that we have two digital downloads available:

1) Print version

This version was made from a scan of the original flat. It was created with the intention of sharing with folks for distribution of the print version.

2) Read-version

This is the online-friendly version you can see in the embed above. This file is best viewed in e-readers or printed with the expectation that it will be page by page and not the same as the flat.

HOW TO ACCESS HTSAC FILES

We’re raising funds to make 200+ print versions of How to Stage a Coup to give away during tour, so we’re asking folks interested in gaining access to either files to email poczineproject@gmail.com with information about how they plan to use it.

Based on that info (and our relationship with that person/collective), we will ask for a sliding scale donation in exchange for access to a secure file.

We will be providing free access to both downloads on a case-by-case basis. In the meantime, enjoy the read-only version above.

We look forward to seeing more copies of How to Stage a Coup in circulation and on shelves in venues/zine libraries/archives worldwide!

Please note that, per Luu’s donation statement, “This zine and the parts within it are not to be used for profit (paying for expenses is okay though).”

We’ll have more details about who follows up to distro and archive How to Stage a Coup in the coming weeks and months.

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SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

If everyone in our community gave $1, we would more than meet our fundraising goal for 2013. If you have it to spare, we appreciate your support. All funds go to our 2013 tour, the Legacy Series and the poverty zine series.

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

Let’s Talk About: Zines In The Classroom—Pros and Cons

[DESCRIPTION: Liana Velazquez and her zine “Diffeguajira Mixrand” at KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy]

Words and photos by Liz Mayorga, POCZP West Coast Coordinator

I met Liana Velazquez while working at KIPP: San Francisco Bay Academy, a charter school. Liana came in to enroll as a 5th grader. She was shy, but her eyes did not miss a detail. She studied the office as well as the people in it. I soon learned that Liana was not normally reserved. She had just moved to San Francisco from Cuba. Liana was about to start school in a new country, where everything - especially the language - felt foreign. She suffered in school because of the language barrier. Not only did she have a hard time understanding the lessons, but she felt alienated from her classmates. Liana spent a lot of time in the office, where I tutored her. I translated some of her assignments and helped her with her English.

Three years have passed. In that time, I have witnessed Liana’s curiosity and persistence grow even more.

This year, it came through in her writing. Her eighth grade English teacher, Mr. Patrone, encouraged her to continue writing as many stories as possible. He had his students keep a journal, and Liana’s was filled with a series of short stories (both fictional and personal). Patrone and I are good friends, so I always ask him about the kids. He was happy to tell me about Liana’s progress. “It would be awesome to see her and the other kids push their creativity. See where it will take them,” he said.

We brainstormed ways in which to encourage creative freedom, while following the school’s curriculum. I suggested zines. Patrone agreed that a zine workshop would be a perfect way to end the school year, so after the students finished their CSTs, he assigned a zine project. I came in a once a week (for the last three weeks of school) to look through the student’s work and give them feedback. I was impressed by everyone’s projects. They wrote book reviews, song lyrics, created amazing visual art, and told stories about the things that mattered to them. Even the kids who were “too cool” to care became interested in their assignment.

I asked Patrone if I could give one of these kids a zinester spotlight. He checked with the administration to make sure it was okay, and then he told me to look at Liana Velazquez’s zine. I was not surprised to know her zine was phenomenal. What did surprise me was how much her creativity had flourished in such a short amount of time.

Patrone and I set some time aside for me to interview Liana about her zine. Our interview took place on Friday, May 24, 2013.

THE MAKING OF ‘DIFFEGUAJIRA MIXRAND’ ZINE

Liana Velazquez embraces both languages, Cuban Spanish and English, and after three years of living in the United States, dealing with language barriers, and feeling out of place, Liana has gained the confidence she needs to let her creativity shine through. Liana writes stories about love, family, and her ever-changing identity.

Her final 8th grade English assignment was to create a zine, and it proved to be the perfect platform to portray the world, as rich and complicated as she sees it.

She named her zine “Diffeguajira Mixrand,” and she explains: “Diffe stands for different and where I grew up guajiros are really humble (people). They’re poor, but they’re always going to give something to you. You can always trust them, and they’re my people – the people I grew up with.”

[DESCRIPTION: The cover of Liana Velazquez’s zine “Diffeguajira Mixrand”]

Each letter in the title forms a symbol. “Here I drew a little boat,” she points to the D, “because that’s what my dad really likes. He doesn’t have that anymore, since he lives here. We used to live by the ocean, and in Cuba, the ocean is beautiful.” Liana dotted the “I” with a candle light. “The candle protected us from the mosquitos,” she said. She looks at the “A” in “Mixrand,” which resembles a butterfly’s wing and says “The butterfly I put there because my mom loves them. I wanted to represent both my parents. And this…” She points to the bottom of the cover, “This is the address of the house I grew up in. I never forgot it. I forget a lot of stuff, like I forget names, and I always forget my address here, but I never forgot my address in Cuba.”

[DESCRIPTION: “Broken Ears,” from Liana Velazquez’s zine “Diffeguajira Mixrand”]

Liana combined all of the things that make up her identity and the daily challenges that come with love, family, and acclimating to a new country as young woman. When Liana first attended KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy, she spent her lunchtime in the office, turning to the only people in the school who spoke Spanish - the custodian, the secretary, and her bilingual peers – to translate her assignments for her. Communication was a struggle.

But three years later, Mr. Patrone (the eighth grade teacher), asked Liana and her classmates to write in their composition books every day, and Liana was surprised to see how much she had to say.

“At first, I thought it was too much,” Liana says. “I have all this homework and then I have to write, and I was afraid I couldn’t handle it. But then I got into it. I started writing down things, and I showed it to my cousin. She thought it was good. I showed it to Mr. Patrone and he encouraged me to write more. And I couldn’t stop. I wanted to keep writing. I would stay up late, until 1, 2, 3 in the morning, but it was worth it.”

[DESCRIPTION: “My Admiration is touch,” from Liana Velazquez’s zine “Diffeguajira Mixrand”]

Even though Liana already had a love for words and storytelling, this zine project proved to be particularly liberating. The idea of showing her work to other people also encouraged her to put more thought into each piece, and the visual art motivated her to create something amazing. “I was thinking that color was important,” she says, “In the journal, I was just writing. But here, since it’s a zine I know that people do drawings, but I decided to do this because the colors, the red and blue represent flag. And everything represents Cuba and me and everything that I believe in.”

[DESCRIPTION: Excerpt from Liana Velazquez’s zine “Diffeguajira Mixrand”]

Liana’s “Diffeguajiro Mixrand” is an example of how zines help teenagers express much more than words and break through creative freedom. With a mixed media approach to writing, teenagers also have a visual and tactile way to share their thoughts. The realm of communication expands, and people capture multiple pieces of their reality.

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WHEN ZINE-MAKING IN THE CLASSROOM GOES VERY WRONG

By POCZP founder Daniela Capistrano

Liana Velazquez’s story is a positive example of what a zine-making classroom experience can be like. Her final 8th grade English assignment at KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy was to create a zine and it was clearly an affirming experience for her. I’m happy that POCZP member Liz was in the classroom to support students, as she knows her stuff, when it comes to zine history and contributions by POC in zine & DIY culture.

Unfortunately, this is not every young person of color’s experience when they are first introduced to zine-making, zine culture and history in an academic setting.

During last year’s Race Riot! tour, I listened to—among other things—stories by POC attendees who shared their first introduction to zines. Depending on their age, digital literacy and other factors, feedback ran the gamut of being introduced to a zine by a friend, at a punk show, through Tumblr or as a classroom assignment.

What I noticed was that the younger the person was (23 and younger), the more likely they discovered zines this way:

1) On the Internet (Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, intentionally searching for a specific title, etc.)

2) At a punk/DIY/house show

3) A friend gave them a zine or brought them to a zine event

4) As a (mandatory or optional) class assignment

From these four responses, a mandatory class assignment was the one that raised the most questions—and concerns—for me, and here’s why:

After one of our academic speaking engagements on the tour, a young woman of color approached and asked to speak with me privately. She didn’t want other students to hear her question, so we moved away from the crowd.

This young woman shared that she was experiencing a lot of anxiety around a classroom assignment given to her by a white male professor at the university where I was speaking with POCZP. She was supposed to make a perzine and include personal details about her “culture” and “experiences as a woman.” I didn’t ask her to clarify what the class was about because it didn’t matter—already this whole situation sounded really problematic.

What I did ask her was if her anxiety stemmed from this being a graded assignment, and she said yes. I asked her if divulging personal information about herself and her family for a graded assignment made her uncomfortable, and she said yes. She looked surprised that I knew these were her biggest concerns, but unfortunately this is not a new story to me.

I then asked her if this was her first time making a zine, and she nodded yes. She leaned forward and whispered, with a nervous look on her face, “How should I make my zine? What should I put it in it?”

That is when I took a deep breathe and gave her a longer and more personalized version of what I am about to share with you all now:

“I am truly sorry that your first introduction to zine-making is through an academic institution. No one should be telling you that there is one set way to make a zine. No one should be requiring you to make a perzine as part of your overall grade.

The only way I could ever see this being justified is if you were a design, journalism, or communications major and enrolled in a class called ‘zine-making,’ and you knew that the expectation was that you would be graded on zine-making (within the parameters established by the instructor, which would be clearly spelled out in advance in the syllabus). That zine-making assignment would NEVER be a perzine, because the teacher would know and understand the history and culture of zines, and that grading someone on a perzine is like following a stranger into the toilet and grading the quality of their piss and shit. It is completely inappropriate.

I am sorry that you are experiencing anxiety when you think about making this zine for your class. I wish that instead you were feeling excited and inspired to share your stories, art, insights—and to experiment with art and design. It must be really hard to get into a positive headspace about your first zine, when you know you are going to be graded on detailing personal issues about your life for a white male professor, who has no right to make this a requirement for any class, ever.

I think it’s a huge sign of unchecked privilege for a white male professor to require any student to make a perzine and then grade their output. Your private family life and “cultural” details are none of his damn business. Here is a person who is clearly trying to be “hip” without considering the fact that sometimes, a zine assignment is not the best or most appropriate way to connect with your students or articulate a concept.

So here’s what we know: you’re going to be graded on this zine whether you like it or not. You could fight it—you could take it above his head and explain to the powers-that-be that this teacher has no business requiring you to disclose personal information for a graded assignment, but I’m not going to tell you to do that. You need to do what’s right for you.

But can I make a suggestion about how to approach this, if you do decide to make this perzine for your class to avoid getting a “bad” grade?

Don’t think of this as your first perzine or zine, because it’s not. It’s not really your zine. You are making something for a teacher’s unrealistic and inappropriate expectations. Don’t feel like you have to disclose anything you don’t want to in this zine—think of this like any other assignment you would have in a class where you know that the only way to get a good grade is to do what the teacher thinks is right, and to write that down.

So, what has your teacher indicated is the “right” way to make a zine? If you’re unclear about format, size and content, there are plenty of tutorials online that detail this information. Ask your teacher to name an example of a perzine that he likes, try to find it (or the general equivalent) and then follow that format. This way, you know what he’s looking for. You can find many examples of perzines at http://zinelibrary.info/english/personal.

Make sure that there is no way he can slash your grade based on design flaws. Give him something that—from a purely technical point of view—falls under the category of “aesthetically pleasing” and only include the most basic personal information you feel comfortable sharing. Don’t compromise yourself (only you know what that would look like).

You could even make up an entirely fictional story and call it personal details from your life—that is what I would do, actually. How is he going to know? Let him believe what he wants to believe—he already believes that it’s acceptable for him to assume that everyone is just like him: totally free to share private details about their lives without any consequences, and grade them based on that presumed freedom.

If you don’t feel comfortable calling your teacher out privately or publicly, don’t. Do what make sense for you. Only you can make that call. Do what you need to do to feel safe.

After you turn in that “made in the belly of white privilege” fake zine and you get the A, you should feel free - if you want - to forget you ever made that zine. That wasn’t your first zine. That was the convoluted outcome of a teacher out of touch with his privilege. A zine is not materiality forced out of you by a white male instructor.

A zine is an extension of yourself. You define that, not him or anyone else.

You don’t have to hate the zine you made for class—you may even end up enjoying the process and the final product. You may decide that this zine does in fact reflect who you are, but don’t put unnecessary pressure on yourself if you can’t make up your mind about it immediately.

Take what you can from the experience of what it’s like to make a zine for a class requirement, but don’t feel bad if you don’t like the zine either, or still feel anxiety when it’s done. What you are experiencing is the totally normal cognitive dissonance one feels when someone tries to quantify the value of your inner world through forcing you to make a perzine and then grading it.

Don’t let this experience of making a zine turn you off from the medium itself, or the practice. Imagine what your first zine experience would have been like if you had been sitting at a bus stop, and next to you was a small little photocopied, stapled book, and inside were hand-drawn comics, copies of photos, and personal stories that made you laugh, cry and think. You suddenly found yourself caring for someone you never met — all because you found their zine.

You took the zine home and placed it on a shelf in your room for safekeeping, and that night you dreamt about the zine YOU would make that weekend at home — the one that someone else might discover one day.

If you decide to refuse to make this zine and take your concerns to the administration, or to make it anyway—I support your choice. But don’t let white male privilege in the classroom damage your perception of zine-making or zine culture. It does belong to you, and you get to define what that means for you—not him.”

Educators: Be in tune with what motivates you to introduce zine-making into your lesson plan. Ask yourself these questions:

1) Why do I care about introducing zine-making and zine culture to my students? What relevant information should I be sharing with them about zine culture and history — and how do my own privileges inform how I prioritize this information?

2) Does it make sense for me to only talk about zines made by white people to a classroom full of primarily students of color?

3) Is it really necessary for me to grade the zines—can they simply get a pass or fail based on completing the assignment?

4) What am I leaving out of my retelling of zine history that is silencing and oppressive to my students of color?

5) If I don’t have much information about zines by people of color, what steps will I take to educate myself BEFORE introducing zines to my students?

COMMUNITY: If you are an educator or youth workshop facilitator who uses zines in the classroom, send us your experiences to poczineproject@gmail.com with “zine teacher” as the subject line. We want to share a wide range of voices on this topic. Also, feel free to leave your comments in a reblog.

Want more? Read POCZP Midwest Coordinator Joyce’s recap of her zine-making experience with an all Native girl scout troop.

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“Let’s Talk About” is an experimental series by POCZP created to share communal knowledge, resources and reflections on a wide range of topics affecting communities of color.

If you are a person of color—or a white person with a history of supporting POC Zine Project— who wants to contribute to “Let’s Talk About,” submit to poczineproject@gmail.com with “Let’s Talk About” in the subject line.

All submissions to “Let’s Talk About” will be compiled into a zine (print & digital) that will be released by POCZP in December of 2013.

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SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

Let’s Talk About: ‘The Truth Tour and how to be an ally at POC and Native events’

By Cata, POCZP East Coast Intern

The Truth Tour consists of folks from the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota and allies, traveling to different cities in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic to tell their stories, advocating for a return to matriarchal leadership and raising awareness of the ongoing genocide of their people. The event I attended was a film screening of the documentary “Red Cry,” held in Washington, DC, on April 16th.

Below is an entry point into a continuous conversation, not a rule book.

A big question that surrounds POC (people of color) events from those outside of the community holding the event is “how can I be an ally?”

A simple answer to these questions is to put your self in service to the community and don’t take up space.

DC ‘TRUTH TOUR’ EVENT RECAP

April 16 – Washington, DC – Metropolitan Community Church of DC – 6:30pm

When the Lakota Grandmothers came to DC in April, my partner and I cooked a meal for an event as an act of support/solidarity. What follows here are my reflections as an audience member/participant in the film screening event.

I write with a strong desire to contribute to a (hopefully) ongoing conversation of allyship. The night of the event in DC there were many important voices and stories shared. The group had come a long way to spread their voices. I am thankful for their journey. I felt blessed to be among these strong travelers and hope to meet them again one day.

However, among the powerful stories offered there were important voices and stories that were missed. Here are some things I observed as I watched the evening pass with a complex interplay of isms and unchecked privileges.

For days afterward I couldn’t get out of my head the Q&A session after the “Red Cry” screening.

The white anarchist/activist who stood up and said “I don’t know about the rest of the room, but me and my house mates on THIS side of the room- we’re REALLY in SOLIDARITY with you all! REALLY!”

This wasn’t a question; it was a comment offered perhaps to receive an ego stroke from the audience/caravaners and it was distracting.

Then, there was an African-American woman who stood up asking to be part of the Lakota people, referencing her own Native heritage. It was refreshing to see a person of color seeking to honor their indigenous heritage— but the word use: “Can I be a part of you?” made my face scrunch.

Again, this was not a question pertaining to their journey or to the film.

Then, three or four folks raised their hands… again without questions… but instead with gifts. Literally folks were walking up to an elder with shells, books and bags of what? I don’t know.

Weird? Yes. Distracting? Yes. Ego strokes? Yes and yes.

Three-quarters of the way through the event, the main Native male speaker who had been speaking the most and facilitating, acknowledged that the others on his caravan, including most of the women, had not spoken. He suggested that they go down the line and share something.

“Yes, finally!” I thought, time to hear everyones voice. But, wait. One more person in the audience needs the spot light and asks a question/comment…then POOF! Our time is done.

A song is sung and things are wrapped up. There is never time to hear the voices of the other Native folks, most of them women, from the caravan.

NEXT STEPS

As POC organizers we need to reflect:

On this Truth Tour designed to advocate a return to matriarchy, how did the Native man facilitating (and the crew as a whole) not realize that his voice was filling the time available at the expense of other (female) voices from the caravan?
How do we as POC organizers/activists let inter-communities privileges distract or disappear an important layer in our events or projects?
How did the audience continue on unaware of their distracting behavior?
Why did certain audience members(and why do some folks) think it was/is ok to deconstruct their internal conflicts on some one else’s time?

This brings me back to allyship. Here are some ways to be an ally:

1) Be aware of your layers (gender, colourism, class, race, orientation, shyness etc).

2) Take your OWN time to process privilege, settlers guilt etc.

3) Do your service, go home and process in your journal or with other allies about your experience and how to be a better ally next time.

It’s all good. We are all learning here, but to distract from someone else’s event/or project with your own internal conflicts is unchecked privilege. To disappear someone else’s voice or story with your own, no matter if you’re an ally or a member of the community is rude. These patterns disrupt progress.

Privileges unchecked and unprocessed hurt ourselves and our communities. Until we learn as how to beware of our layers and hold one another accountable the biggest thing that will come of our events and projects in the eyes of others (and maybe ourselves) is debriefing the distractions.

Distractions are annoying. And, distractions are NOT solidarity. Lets move the focus back.

NYC ‘TRUTH TOUR’ EVENT RECAP

April 8, 2013 – New York City, NY, Judson Memorial Church- 239 Thompson St. (Solidarity/Decolonization Training) – 7:00pm

By Anonymous contributor to POCZP

I attended the Indigenous Solidarity and Decolonizing Training at Judson Memorial Church in hopes of learning more about the Lakota people, their struggles, and what it means to be in solidarity with indigenous communities. I was looking forward to participating in conversations about the meaning of decolonization and how one develops and sustains a political praxis around decolonizing the self in relation to community.

These days I have been thinking a lot about what it means for me, a women of color to challenge the mindset of settler colonialism that is part of my privilege and my immigrant histories. I believe that the complexities of communities of color engaging with native and indigenous communities should not be limited to understand through reading books and watching documentaries, so I went to this event to listen, to learn, to say hello.

I have deep respect the leaders of this training, for their histories and communities, and for the ways in which they walk through this world. However what I experienced last night was triggering, frustrating, and very confusing.

All but one of the Lakota grandmothers was present and the reason for this was never clearly explained or discussed. We began by asking those in the room who have any European ancestry, to stand up. As expected nearly eighty plus percent of the room were of European descent; I was one of few women of color, and perhaps South Asian in the room who did not stand up.

I have a vague understand of the purpose of this exercise, to call attention to the active realities of colonization as part of people’s being, and that as privilege that you cannot erase. However the presenters did not once ask any questions or specifically engage with the people of color in the room to ask why there were present, what it means for people of color to experience colonialism, and how the displacement of communities of color can reinforce colonial oppressions that native peoples face.

Once again white people became the center focus of the discussion, a conversation that I am sick in tired of having.

How can we destroy the constructs of whiteness if we continually reify them in our political spaces through reliving trauma and shaming one another?

There were several instances where the main “teacher” of this “training” used disparaging language against biracial and multiracial people. They outlined the role of elderly women, or the grandmothers in the struggle without giving the elderly women in the room a chance to speak out on their own and share their stories.

There was a moment where a white man was being disruptive and the presenter challenged him on his behavior, but did not ask him to leave the room. Of course this man continued to be disruptive and my friend, a women of color, had to ask him to leave.

I could give further specifics and in detail but I am not interested in calling out the presenter or the organizers of this event. Rather, I write this to raise the question of how can we build solidarity and decolonize together when so many of our political spaces are dominated by the politics of whiteness and by those whom I gender as being male-identified and male-bodied?

What is it going to take for men to recognize their male-privilege and to step down, work together on building true allyship with women in the struggle, and to call each other out?

There is a lot to say about this training. I am vested in having these conversations in person, and with people I hope to build my politics and community with.

However, in sharing this, I hope we can have a more open and honest dialogue about how to challenge spaces that are political defunct in the moment, and how to create something new that has a liberating direction.

Editor’s Note: POCZP founder Daniela Capistrano attended the NYC Truth Tour date and put a call for feedback on the POCZP Facebook page. Subsequently, Daniela spoke with this anonymous contributor, who gave POCZP permission to publish their thoughts under the condition that they remain anonymous. POCZP respects their choice to remain anonymous, as often it can be very difficult and triggering as a POC to question POC-led movements/actions.

MORE ON THE APRIL 8 NYC TRUTH TOUR EVENT

Below are POCZP founder Daniela Capistrano’s thoughts on the NYC Truth Tour event, originally published on the POCZP Facebook page. She also recorded this positive moment at the end of the evening:

[DESCRIPTION: The event leaders asked attendees to participate in a round dance at the end of the event. Couples were placed in the middle circle, while the elders were in another circle around it. After a while, others who weren’t necessarily elders were encouraged to join the outer circle. Native and non-native folks participated in the dance. This video captures about 80% of the round dance duration.]

By Daniela Capistrano, POCZP founder

The event overall was (for folks we spoke to) very triggering and complex. I wish that more female elders spoke, since that is what the tour is about. However, I also understand that there is another related event where female elders will be speaking.

This event wasn’t an “easy” experience. Some folks said there wasn’t enough actual training and that it was more of a blame game. Others did not agree with this assessment at all and said they got a lot out of it.

The event leaders asked everyone at the start of the experience “to listen with your heart.” Some people in attendance had a very had time just listening and there were many privilege issues at play. One white male would not stop interjecting and made it all about him until he was asked to stop. He could not handle that feedback and left.

Another white male took up way too much time singing a “spiritual” song, making the focus about him instead of the elders. A white female spoke on behalf of a black male in attendance without his consent. Many interesting and triggering actions went down last night at this event, a microcosm of bigger issues at play …

Some participants had issues with being put on the spot based on race, class and gender. Another controversial facet of the training was when attendees were challenged to cut up their government IDs as a symbol of their commitment to decolonize. Clearly there are many factors that would inform someone’s decision to participate or not, such as citizenship status in the U.S. and the dangerous ramifications of not having ID while experiencing racial profiling or worse. Race, class and gender were also factors.

One could argue that this act of cutting up an ID meant nothing and was in fact hurtful to undocumented folks in attendance or others in tenuous circumstances. Lots to think about. But I aired on the side of listening with an open mind and staying until the end. I chose to cut up my ID to confront my privileges; to know what it felt like to destroy government issued materiality; and to think about all the privileges that made it so “easy” for me to cut up my ID without any real consequences. I did it for myself, didn’t judge those who didn’t and also doesn’t think that cutting an ID automatically “decolonized” my existence and mental state. For me, it was an act of undoing mental damage tied to identity politics.

I am glad that I did stay until the end of the event, because I was able to meet one of the female elders, who I hope will collaborate with POCZP on the Race Riot tour this fall, as #IdleNoMore is our core focus.

Because I stayed until the end, I was able to capture the round dance on video, which had a very peaceful and healing affect for many who participated.

In closing, it’s 100% OK to not agree with all facets of a decolonizing event. It’s OK to not agree with the leaders and to walk out when you feel triggered. Several people did walk out. But I am glad that I stayed.

NOTICE: POCZP founder Daniela Capistrano reached out to Truth Tour organizers in April to share feedback and to discuss a possible collaboration for the Race Riot! tour. She also reached out again upon publishing this piece. We are patiently awaiting a response.

COMMUNITY: Help make this a productive conversation by adding your thoughts in your reblog.

RESOURCES

Educate yourself on what the Truth Tour is all about:

Victoria Law on the Truth Tour: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15870-going-extinct-is-genocide-lakota-elders-tour-to-raise-awareness-about-struggle

Truth Tour Website http://www.lakotagrandmothers.org/

“Red Cry” information:

“Red Cry” premiered on April 1, 2013, at the Mother Butler Center in Rapid City, SD in Lakota Territory. It was shown on consecutive nights in other cities as part of the Lakota Truth Tour.

Limited quantities of the Red Cry DVD are available for free. If you would like a DVD sent to you, Truth Tour organizers request that you give a donation of $5 or more to cover the costs of shipping and materials.

Please mail your address and a check made payable to “Lakota Solidarity Project” to:

Lakota Solidarity Project
PO Box 881
Asheville, NC 28801

If you would like to show the film in your area, they ask that you download the Organizer Toolkit and use this as a model for how to organize the screening. Contact them if you are interested in screening “Red Cry.”

DONATE to the Lakota Solidarity Project/Truth Tour via PayPal by clicking here.

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“Let’s Talk About…” is an experimental series by POCZP created to share communal knowledge, resources and reflections on a wide range of topics affecting communities of color.

If you are a person of color—or a white person with a history of supporting POC Zine Project— who wants to contribute to “Let’s Talk About…” submit to poczineproject@gmail.com with “Let’s Talk About” in the subject line.

All submissions to “Let’s Talk About…” will be compiled into a zine (print & digital) that will be released by POCZP in December of 2013.

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SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

POC Zine Project ‘Let’s Talk About’ column #1: ‘I Make Books…That’s My Shit’

I Make Books…That’s My Shit: Notes on How I Came to Media Making

By POCZP Midwest Coordinator Chaun Webster, founder of Free Poet’s Press

I make books…that’s my shit. Love the smell of the pages. I can recall more than a few embarrassing moments as a child with my head stuck in them as I sat in the library taking deep breaths in. But more than just the book object, I love reading. Sci-fi of the order of Octavia Butler, Wild Seed, YES PLEASE!

Prison Letters from George Jackson, Autobiography by Assata Shakur, Biomythography of Audre Lorde or Maxine Hong Kingston. I can’t get enough of the magic of language, the dance of the letters on the page as meanings collide in the sometimes challenging, sometimes breathtaking moments. From Eduardo Galeano, to Ben Okri, to Gloria Anzuldia, I continue to be baptized.

But more than just reading perhaps it is story that draws me, for I cannot remember my mother ever reading me something that she ever wrote down, but she could tell a story masterfully. Whether the mysterious, the anecdotal or the epic, she knew how to draw from the powers of her experiences and bear witness.

This is some of the spirit with which I came to my own form of media making, the writing and publishing performing the same gesture that my mother’s storytelling did. Though I don’t believe she was cognizant of it her stories were a gesture of power, of recognizing that we are here, and that though the legitimate records have criminally left us absent, we will continue to bear witness. That witness can serve the purpose of balm or explosive strapped to the structures that assault us day to day.

In my journey with books I would read the record of David Walker and his Appeal, make my own connections to that account and Nat Turner’s rebellion. There was a sense I came to about the interrelation of culture and resistance. Whether it was with this narrative or the work of Ida B. Wells, Lewis Michaux, Dudley Randall or Haki Madhubuti and their respective presses or bookstores, there was something to be said about culture and movement-making.

How do we imagine what has happened or what is possible? What force shapes the way we desire or negotiate and even dare to undermine the structures that govern, if not a cultural force?

Knowing of these stories and of their power was what made me so perplexed by “zinesters” who located that practice in something that was most often raced white and gendered male. The idea of DIY as chic, or a form of branding, misses the substance of the politically performed practice of enslaved Afrikans for whom writing was made illegal. Those same Afrikans who wrote anyway to bear witness that we were here, and will remain. It omits the work of the Black and Brown women who have held the traditions together and whose words work as mortar and sledgehammer.

I make books because there was something humanizing in seeing Jessica Care Moore’s Moore Black Press. It’s power signified something local in knowledge production, that that act was not always external.

I make books because there is a space between oppression and resistance that culture occupies, because cultural revolution is the weapon and because I intend to be fully armed.

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Free Poet’s Press is a small publishing company started in 2009 by Chaun Webster (POCZP Midwest Coordinator) with the intent of empowering Black and Brown artists to control their own images.

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“Let’s Talk About…” is an experimental series by POCZP created to share communal knowledge, resources and reflections on a wide range of topics affecting communities of color.

All submissions to “Let’s Talk About…” will be compiled into a zine (print & digital) that will be released by POCZP in December of 2013.

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SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

ZINE SPOTLIGHT: Mixed Up! A Zine about Mixed-Race Queer & Feminist Experience [READ & DOWNLOAD]

POCZP helped support the call for submissions to Mixed Up! A zine about Mixed-Race Queer & Feminist Experience last fall. We’ll be distributing copies at Atlanta Zine Fest this weekend <3

AUTHORS: Zine editors Lil Lefkowitz, Lee Naught & Lior and contributors to “Mixed Up!”

TUMBLR: http://mrqfzine.tumblr.com/

PUBLISHED: April 24, 2013

NOTE FROM LIOR TO POCZP:

Thanks so much for your email, and for uploading Mixed Up to your Issuu. We’d love it if you made the zine available in whatever way you feel like! So totally feel free to post the printable, so folx can make and distribute their own. And, of course, if you wanna make copies and sell them, by all means!

READ ‘MIXED UP!’ NOW

POCZP’s mission is to make zines by people of color easy to find, distribute and share. In that spirit, we’ve added a readable version online that you can also download, courtesy of the “Mixed Up!” editors.

ORIGINAL ‘MIXED UP!’ CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Hey, mixed-race folks, how do you respond when you get asked what you are? Do you feel at a loss for words when trying to describe your racial, ethnic, or cultural background? Do you find yourself struggling to understand where you belong in the context of prominent racial paradigms? Do you run into a POC-white binary that is reductive, incomplete, or simply not enough? What does it mean that there often isn’t an easy answer? And what happens when you add gender, feminism, and queerness into the mix?

Hey, queers and feminists, let’s respond to the lack of representation of mixed-race folks like us. Yes, we are deeply indebted to the countless beautiful queers and feminists of color who have demanded to be heard; who fight, survive, and die on a daily basis. We are indebted to colonized people and feminists of color around the world and in the states who have taught us that black and brown are beautiful; who have shown us how to act with compassion and love and thoughtful rage in the face of white supremacist violence. This zine is a call to continue this work; to build upon the work of anti-racist and decolonial literature, given the nuances of our lives as mixed-race queers and feminists, so often living on stolen land while refusing to forget the land stolen from our ancestors.

No doubt, racism against folks of color is fucking real, and those of us who are mixed race and sometimes or always pass as white are much less prone to the multiple forms of violence faced by black and brown folks. However, too often, that’s the end of the conversation. This zine strives to challenge the narrow conception of POC vs white, a binary which doesn’t allow space for many folks’ experiences or for more complex identities (even among POCs and white folks).

As mixed-raced queers and feminists, we refuse to whitewash our histories. We refuse to label individuals based solely upon our perceptions of their skin color or features. Colonialism attempts to whitewash, erase, assimilate and subjugate through violence and oppression. We refuse to finish this work. We invite you to collectively participate in this refusal.

A Working Definition of Mixed-race: While this may not be the perfect term, we are using it to frame a very broad set of experiences and identities, which may include tracing all or part of one’s culture or heritage to brown people and colonized people, inclusive of all skin tones. This may also include being raised with multiple cultures or with immigrant experience.

Why Queers & Feminists? Not only are we interested in the ways that mixed-race folks’ identities interact with queerness and feminism, but we also believe that it is important to prioritize stories from queers and feminists, whose voices are often marginalized. Moreover, with a topic as broad as race, we want to anchor our discussions in some common politics. This anchor is important because it is a big part of how we (the editors) choose who to organize with, live with, form community with, fuck, and, in this case, write zines with.

Possible Topics: Privilege. [Not] Passing. Sex, relationships & dating. Conflicting and conflated identities (especially related to race and queerness, transness, feminism, class, dis/ability). The POC/white binary. Cultural appropriation. Structural and institutional oppression. Art, music & creativity. [Not] Belonging. Cultural estrangement. Immigrant experiences. Families & histories. Colonizing processes in family, work, activisms & relationships. Being too brown/not brown enough. Home. Diaspora. Performing identities. Physical manifestations of race, and intersection with other forms of identity and presentation. Preserving and paying respect to heritage & history (eg: interviews, oral histories, folklore). Remembering. Tracing origins and roots. The importance of race/ethnicity/culture to political formation. Mixed-race community. Food & recipes. Remedies. Developing new language(s). Race/religion overlap (and exclusion). And much, much more.

Media and formats: Poetry, prose, essay, visuals (B&W for zine, possibly color online), audio (for online), interviews, and other formats (pitch them to us!— we’re good catchers).

Deadline for submissions: Extended to January 15th, 2012. Submit to mrqfzine [at] gmail [dot] com.

Contact:
mrqfzine [at] gmail [dot] com
www.mrqfzine.tumblr.com

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HELP DISTRIBUTE ‘MIXED! UP’ ZINE

Download a read-only and a PRINT version here, courtesy of the ‘Mixed Up!’ zine editors.

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SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

SCENE REPORT: Pocket Zine Workshop with Girl Scout Troop 30280

By Joyce Hatton, POCZP Midwest Coordinator

Back in February of 2013, Joyce independently led a pocket zine workshop with Girl Scout Troop 30280, an all Native Girl Scout Troop in Fargo, North Dakota. Here is her recap:

On Wednesday February 20th I taught Girl Scout Troop 30280 how to make pocket zines. It was especially meaningful to me because Troop 30280 is an all Native Girl Scout Troop. I was grateful for an opportunity to pass on zine making skills to youth of color. (I wrote more about the troop here).

I met with them at the Native American Center, where the troop holds their meetings. The girls in the troop range from about 5 to 11 years old. One of the first questions I asked was how many of the girls were artists or writers, and all of them said they were!

I told them a little bit about the history of zines, which they weren’t very impressed with. They were, however, very impressed when I got out a stack of an unfolded pocket zines I’d written and told them “On this one sheet of paper, I wrote a book. And I published this book myself. I made twenty copies of my book for two dollars.”

I told them how cool zines were because they can be about anything you want. I asked some of the girls what they were interested in, and what they would want to make theirs about—overall the group was pretty interested in animals.

So I told them “You can make a zine about your favorite animal, and then you can copy it, publish it, and give it to your friends. Zines are a really cool way to teach your friends about things that you’re interested in.”

The girls seemed to be really excited about that. I felt like a broken record reiterating that “you can write about anything at all, anything that is important to you,” and “there’s no wrong way to make a zine,” but I really wanted to dissolve the fear of doing it perfectly so the girls could just dive in. Dive in they did!

Here are some pictures of the zines they made that evening:

Photo #1: A. doesn’t like to draw, so she wrote about animals in the zoo.

Photo #2: I was really impressed with the art in D.’s zine. She told me all about her technique for finger-painting with markers.

Photo #3: S. loves to read, so she wrote her zine about books. The book on the cover is called “Book of Doom.

Photo #4: The picture of this zine is cropped to keep identifying information out. M. had a huge blond streak in her hair, and talked about her mom’s salon quite a bit.

Photo #5: N. started out drawing animals, but decided to draw animals pooping.

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MAKE YOUR OWN POCKET AKA MINI-ZINE

Video by pinkyshow

DO YOU WANT TO BE A POCZP COORDINATOR LIKE JOYCE?

If you are in the Midwest and want to support POCZP with Joyce, let us know! We are also looking for representatives in every state, as well as regional support, as we build toward the National POC Zinester & Ally Conference/Convergence. Ideally you have some experience with organizing events and building community, but experience is not required. All are welcome. Priority will be given to people of color who apply but allies are definitely welcome.

Contact poczineproject@gmail.com for more details with “regional coordinator” as the subject line.

If you are outside the U.S. and want to be a part of our emerging POCZP Global Ambassadors program, email poczineproject@gmail.com as well to stay informed as opportunities arise.

SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

Meet POCZP’s West Coast Coordinator Liz Mayorga!

Part of POC Zine Project’s advocacy is empowering new and seasoned zinesters of color in the U.S. (and soon worldwide) to share their stories while supporting other POC. Liz is the second official regional coordinator for POCZP (meet Joyce, our Midwest Coordinator, here). We are excited to share developments as this part of our experiment in activism and community through materiality unfolds.

LIZ, IN HER OWN WORDS

Liz was born in Los Angeles, California, but moved back and forth between Mexico and LA throughout her childhood. She is the youngest of three and the only female in a traditional, Catholic, Mexican-American family.

Though her brothers taught her how to throw a good punch, she was often confused by the strict gender roles in rural Mexican society, which told her to be passive and meek. Luckily, Los Angeles was a place where contradiction could exist, a place where you could an aggressive girl, and a Mexican Punk. LA and the influence of popular culture gave Liz an identity she could be proud of.

She moved to the Bay Area for school, but ended up falling in love with SF Zine Fest, and community of artists. They pushed her to pursue her passion for Art and Literature.

Liz now writes fiction and non-fiction, makes comics (check out Inked), and is a working illustrator. Her inspiration comes from her crazy family and Chican@ Pop Culture. She is the Co-Director of San Francisco Zine Fest (SFZF) and is now happy to be a part of the POC Zine Project.

See Liz in action at a recent POCZP Youth Zine workshop in San Francisco, where she led activities with assistance from POCZP intern Itoro Udofia.

Liz hopes to expand and connect the DIY West Coast community and serve as a resource. She wants DIY projects (and zines) by people of color to be especially accessible to youth, because she needed community this open and empowering as a teenager.

It is also a goal of hers to promote multi-media as a part of zine/DIY culture and expand the limits of what a zine could be, because artists, especially artists with a story to tell, need to be more visible.

Learn more about Liz here: lizmayorga.com

COMMUNITY: Join us in welcoming Liz. We are excited to support zine culture and POC storytelling on the West Coast! We will have several events in this region during the 2013 Race Riot! tour. Stay tuned for details …

DO YOU WANT TO BE A COORDINATOR LIKE LIZ?

If you want to support POCZP with Liz, other coordinators, interns and our touring members, let us know!

We are also looking for representatives in every state, as well as regional support, as we build toward the National POC Zinester & Ally Conference/Convergence. Ideally you have some experience with organizing events and building community, but experience is not required. All are welcome. Priority will be given to people of color who apply but allies are definitely welcome.

Contact poczineproject@gmail.com for more details with “regional coordinator” as the subject line.

If you are outside the U.S. and want to be a part of our emerging POCZP Global Ambassadors program, email poczineproject@gmail.com as well to stay informed as opportunities arise.

SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

“Thank you for bringing the joy of reading back to my life!” - Xicana Aguila on FB

#whywedothis #weloveourcommunity

If you identify as a person of color and you’re working on a zine - or have one you’d like to share on our platforms - let us know! Email poczineproject@gmail.com with any questions <3 Please allow 3-5 days for a response.

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ABOUT POC ZINE PROJECT

POC Zine Project’s mission is to makes ALL zines by POC (People of Color) easy to find, distribute and share. We are an experiment in activism and community through materiality.

ABOUT THE RACE RIOT! TOUR

POC Zine Project held it’s first-ever Race Riot! Tour, producing 20 events in 14 cities, which included speaking engagements at six universities. Our time at the University of Maryland was part of the tour. Click here to view photos from the POC Zine Project: 2012 Race Riot! Tour tour finale at Death By Audio in Brooklyn and access all the tour stop recaps.

STAY INFORMED

We will be taking the Race Riot! tour through 14 more cities in 2013.

Facebook.com/POCZineProject

Twitter.com/poczineproject

poczineproject.tumblr.com

SUPPORT POC ZINE PROJECT

If everyone in our community gave $1, we would more than meet our fundraising goal for 2013. If you have it to spare, we appreciate your support. All funds go to our 2013 tour and the poverty zine series.

DONATE link via PayPal: http://bit.ly/SHdmyh

You can also send well-concealed cash or a check! Email poczineproject@gmail.com for details or if you have questions.

Info about the poverty zine series: http://bit.ly/RLVTVt

SCENE REPORT: Oasis for Girls and The POC Zine Workshop

By Liz Mayorga, POCZP West Coast Coordinator

Photos by Itoro Udofia, POCZP Intern

The Oasis for Girls Program, located on Mission St in San Francisco, serves under-resourced girls and young women ages 11-24. They focus on empowering women by helping them reach their full potential through lifeskills, art, and career planning. They are part of Writer’s Corps, which brings professional writers to teach youth.

These writers are placed in a community setting to encourage youth to explore their talents and dreams. Oasis for girls creates a safe space within that spectrum for African American, Arab, Latina, Native, Ascian-Pacific Islander, low-income, immigrant women, transgender and queer women. And I felt honored to work with them as part of the POC Zine Project on March 27, 2013.

Students and Roseli Ilano, WritersCorps Teaching Artist, Oasis for Girls, (center) at the POCZP Youth Zine Workshop on March 27, 2013, at the San Francisco Arts Commission

Itoro and I had the pleasure of leading a POCZP Youth Zine Workshop for Oasis for Girls. We met Roseli Ilano, the Writer’s Corps teacher, at the San Francisco Arts Commission. She greeted us with a warm smile, and introduced us to eight students, all young women of color from different High Schools in San Francisco.

Roseli lead us into a conference room, asked the girls to take a seat, and everyone introduced themselves, awkwardly, like the way we do when we’re in conference rooms, but it didn’t take long for this group to open up. Roseli created a level of comfort that not only encouraged the girls to speak, but helped me and Itoro feel at home.

We started by talking about The POC Zine Project, it’s mission, and our involvement in it. We covered how zines allow people to write between different worlds and form communities, and why they’re so important to communities of color. We highlighted these points with examples of work by Tomás Moniz, Mimi Thi Nguyen, and Osa Atoe.

The girls were impressed to hear about a father who writes about his daughters and his own struggle to help them stay strong and true to themselves, were surprised to hear about a Professor who started off as a zinester, and a musician who broke all norms and expectations by following her passion and creating the fanzine she wanted see. Most of all, they were happy to see people writing about people and topics we’re told to ignore.

After a brief history of zines as a radical self-expression and DIY publishing, we showed examples of Youth Zines and moved on to create one-page minis. This part of the workshop started with a circle and ended with a circle. Itoro asked, “If you could write about anything, what would you write?” We went around sharing the topics that were on our minds.

The topics varied from sexuality to social-economic issues, how women were too often blamed for being assaulted, and how their experience of San Francisco was nothing like the San Francisco people expected to see.

Roseli asked the girls to arrange the art supplies. As they did and prepared to create their minis, I asked them to make two or three zines, and proposed for them to write about the most important women in their lives, unless they wanted to write about something else. Most of the girls wrote about the women they admired, their mothers and grandmothers, their friends and role models.

We ended the workshop by going around the circle again, sharing our minis, our stories with each another.

I can safely say that Itoro and I gained a lot from working with this group of women. Making zines is gratifying, but it doesn’t come close to the satisfaction I feel when working with other people, especially youth, on art projects. Roseli and the girls were a wonderful group: curious, intelligent, engaging, and they had a lot to say.

I felt privileged to be there, to be a part of their circle, and to see their zines.

TESTIMONIAL

“The POC Zine Project creates a space for young women of color to explore their stories in a fun and fresh medium- a medium where the only rule is to take risks and let your creativity soar.

Our young women raised their voices, told their truths, and shared their dreams on paper, fully supported by the POC Zine Project workshop facilitators. In the process they not only learned about the radical history of zinemaking, but became a part of it.” - Roseli Ilano, WritersCorps Teaching Artist, Oasis For Girls

For more information on the Oasis for Girls program:

Phone: (415) 701-7991

FAX: (415) 701-0131

MAIL: Oasis For Girls, 1008 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103

OR WALK-IN: Office Hours are Mondays – Fridays from 11:00 am – 7:00 pm

EMAIL: sfoasis@sfoasis.org

On the Web: www.sfoasis.org

Blog: sfoasis.blogspot.com

ABOUT LIZ MAYORGA

Liz Mayorga is an MFA Writing candidate at California College of the Arts. She writes and illustrates comics and storybooks, often featuring monsters. Her inspiration comes from her crazy family and Chican@ Pop Culture.

She is the Co-Director of San Francisco Zine Fest, and is now happy to be part of the POC Zine Project.

Learn more about her here: lizmayorga.com

COMMUNITY: Learn more about POCZP internship & volunteer opportunities here. We are still accepting applications.

If you are interested in POCZP leading a workshop or other event in collaboration with your organization - worldwide - email poczineproject@gmail.com.

See POCZP member Cristy C. Road on tour with Sister Spit: The Next Generation!

Go support Cristy C. Road (and say hi! - tell her POCZP sent ya! xo) as she continues her queer literary and artistic journey with Sister Spit: The Next Generation!

This year’s tour features Michelle Tea, Ali Liebegott, Dave End, Texta Queen, Daniel Levesque, and of course CCR!

As Cristy aptly put it:

Too many queer boners in one sentence? Its okay, the universe prefers it that way. Come out and listen to us read and perform from our latest projects, laugh a little, rage a little, gaze into your lovers eyes and cry a little……

Tour dates are listed below (CHECK THIS CALENDAR FOR MOST UP TO DATE LISTINGS & VENUES). More info can be found at the RADAR PRODUCTIONS Website.

March 31, 2013 2 PM

San Francisco Public Library

Koret Auditorium

100 Larkin St. San Francisco, CA 94102

April 1, 2013 7:30pm

Rock, Paper, Scissors Collective

2278 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, California 94612

April 2, 2013 7PM

Pasadena City College/Creveling Lounge

1570 East Colorado Boulevard Pasadena, CA 91106

April 3, 2013 2PM Panel/ 7PM Show