Scene Report: Spring 2013 Zine Events on the West Coast
By Itoro Udofia, Legacy Series Intern
The West Coast is bringing you some awesome zine events coming to L.A, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland and Oregon. If you find yourself on a search for zines that speak truth to power and written by ordinary people who create their own alternative press, then don’t miss out! Come out, get tips, make your own zine and learn more about creating these much needed spaces to have our voices heard.
Don’t miss out, bring a friend and get involved. We’ll see you there!
These events are just a sampling of what’s going on and represent zine events open to everyone. When information is provided, we will include accessibility details.
LOS ANGELES
Use Your Words!: A Reading with Tomas Moniz, Artnoose, Ariel Gore, Jillian Lauren & Jerry Stahl
Friday, February 15
Stories Books and Cafe
1716 West Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
7:30-9pm PST - FREE
Tomas will be part of POCZP’s panel at L.A. Zine Fest as well.
LA Zine Fest at the Ukranian Cultural Center
Sunday, February 17
The Ukrainian Cultural Center
4315 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
11am - 5pm PST - FREE
All workshops and discussions are FREE, however there is limited seating at the Moth, so if you really want to see something, be sure to get there early to snag a seat in time.
Multiple panels and other events are going down, including the following:
Anthologizing Your Zine with Mend My Dress Press
Mend My Dress Press’ workshop offering up some strategies to help you begin the process of anthologizing your zine, touching on everything from choosing content to suggestions for publishing. Get advice from the Press’ founders and authors in the flesh!
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
@ The Moth Theatre
POC Zine Project presents: Beyond ‘Race Riot’: People of Color in Zines from 1990s-Today
Join POC Zine Project members Cristy C. Road, Osa Atoe, Mariam Bastani, Suzy X, Tomas Moniz and POCZP founder Daniela Capistrano as they reunite after the 2012 Race Riot! Tour at L.A. Zine Fest. POCZP members will present a multimedia reading and discussion, as well as answer questions about their experience traveling to 14 cities and six universities on the Race Riot! tour, strategies for building community, and more.
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
@ The Moth Theatre
Check the schedule for specifics on other panels.
BAY AREA
Zine Reading with Mend My Dress Press at Needle & Pens
http://mendmydress.com/2013/01/09/were-goin-on-tour/
Wednesday, February 13
Needle & Pens, 7 PM
Zine Reading with Mend My Dress Press at The Holdout http://mendmydress.com/2013/01/09/were-goin-on-tour/
Thursday, February 14
The Holdout, 7:30 PM
MakeArt Workshop with DIY Rubber Band Books at Bayview Branch Library
Saturday, February 23
12:30 - 2:00PM
Drop-in, no registration required
Free and open to the public
Bayview Branch Library
5075 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94124
Learn this simple book-making technique using only two materials: paper and colorful rubber bands. Use your book as a journal, photo album, sticker book or planner!
DIY Zine Making Workshop at Rock Paper Scissors Collective
Thursday, February 28 Every 4th Thursday from 6-8pm Sliding scale cost $1-$10 questions -[at]- rpscollective -[dot]- org
2278 Telegraph ave., Oakland, CA 94612510.238.9171
Led by Price Cobbs who says “I am an office worker by trade, with an interest in the arts. Like many, I have at times made unauthorized fliers and booklets on my employer’s copy machines. I am excited by the thought of using my office photocopy skills to produce a multi-page magazine.”
Zine Making Workshop at Makeshift Society
Wednesday, March 6
Makeshift Society 235 Gough St., San Francisco, CA 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM This event is $25-20 dollars, depending on your membership status.
Bookish Beasts at the Center for Sex and Culture Library and Archive
Sunday, April 14
8AM - 6PM PST
1349 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103
[Between 9th and 10th Streets, on the corner of Grace Street]
Zine & Comic Book Festival —details to come.
PORTLAND, OREGON
Annual Stumptown Comics at the Oregon Convention Center
Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28 Sat. 10-6, Sun. 12-6
777 NE ML King Blvd.
Portland, OR 97232
Entering its tenth year as an organization, the annual Stumptown Comics Festival has been a staple of Portland, Oregon’s vibrant comics community that’s home to artist collective like Periscope Studios and Tranquility Base, along with publishers such as Dark Horse Comics, Top Shelf Productions, and Oni Press. Overseen by a board of professionals in the industry, Stumptown Comics, Inc. has progressed thanks to the valuable time of efforts of its volunteers.
WEST COAST CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
This isn’t technically a zine event but we wanted to share this anyway:
Humboldt State University (HSU) Asian Pacific Islander American Student Alliance’s (A.P.A.S.A) zine call for submissions!! APASA’s goal is to create a space for people who identify within pan-Asian Pacific Islander ethnicity at HSU to gather and find camaraderie. They also seek to form alliances with other groups and the local community in an effort to increase awareness and appreciation of the diversity that exists within their group and how we identify as Asian, Asian American, South Asian, and Pacific Islanders, & to work in solidarity to engage their differences.
Get your creative work or your local resource/business published in the A.P.A.S.A Pan-Asian Pacific Islander ZINE. A paper printed version will be published & distributed as part of the March Pan-API Perspectives festival.
February 20, 2013: Deadline to submit pieces for the paper version of the zine, to apasa@humboldt.edu
What is the “Pan-API Zine?
It is an online resource open to HSU students and the Humboldt County community at large to share stories, reflections, art, and poetry, which focus on experiences & perspectives of pan-Asian Pacific Islander ethnicity. The Pan-API Zine is a place to list and find different community resources, including local non-profits & businesses that offer services in relation to the pan-API perspective.
While this online Zine was created as part of the Pan-API Perspectives festival that will take place from March 25-30, 2013, it is also an ongoing and living resource for the community to share learnings and resources before the festival and after as well.
COMMUNITY: Did we miss any Spring 2013 West Coast zine events? Submit here and we’ll update this post.
Would you like to help us create Scene Reports for every state? Contact us: poczineproject@gmail.com.
If you would like to invite POC Zine Project to your upcoming event, or collaborate on a joint event, let us know!
Editor’s Note: Itoro will be creating weekly Scene Report roundups. Make sure to send us your zine event details so we can share! If it’s not zine-related but possibly of interest to zinesters of color, we will share that as well.
ZINE EVENT [PORTLAND]: Second edition of AmaZine Day on Dec 12
Excerpt:
AmaZine Day is a new small press and zine fest taking place three times a year in the IPRC’s expanded space! The Portland Zine symposium organizers teamed up with IPRC to create this unique, mini zine fest to balance out the rest of the year with chances for Portlanders to exhibit and share their zines!
Celebrate zines and community with the PZS organizers and the IPRC. Our goal is to take the edge off of waiting all year for PZS, especially since we keep filling up each year!
… The event is FREE to attend, but you can also register for a little slice of table to sell and trade your zines for only $5! There are only 40 available spots and you’ll need to fit your zines in a tabloid-size area (11 by 17 inches).
<3 We hope organizers approach local POC orgs about attending/participating!
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/307381592700935/
POC Zine Project <3s the Portland Zine Symposium!
Check out these photos from our first tabling experience at PZS in 2010. We had a great time connecting with zinesters of all stripes and supporting Osa’s zine release party.
August 28, 2010 at In Other Words, PDX
Scenes from our tabling experience at the PZS in 2010
POC Zine Project volunteers: dedicated but also kinda hungry and tired after a long day
Osa shares some of her collection
Win, POC Zine Project volunteer, frolics in the sunshine after PSZ 2010
- All photos by Daniela Capistrano/POC Zine Project
If you have the means and time to do so, be sure to attend this year’s PZS event. It takes place on August 11-12 at Refuge (116 SE Yamhill) in Portland, OR.
The Portland Zine Symposium is a free conference and zine social exploring facets of independent publishing and DIY culture. TPZS is a two day event held in Portland, Oregon every summer since 2001. It consists of two days of workshops, panels, discussions, games and the tabling of zines and independent media.
SIGNAL BOOST: Some zines from the Women of Color Zine Symposium, 2012
Excerpt (written by Jenna Freedman):
Last month I attended the Women of Color Zine Symposium in Portland, Oregon. As you may know, our collection development policy states our emphasis on zines by women of color, which is why it was important for me to zoom across the country for a two-day visit to the whitest city in America. It was great to connect with many email correspondents and Facebook friends like Cathy Camper, Emi Koyama, LaMesha Melton and Sugene Yang-Kelly and to meet a few new-to-me WOC zinesters.
These are the zines I bought:
All This Is Mine #17, by Sugene Yang-Kelly
Zines Y36a no. 17 2012
This is a crafty zine by a pregnant Korean-American librarian. Issue 17 focuses on craft projects, social networking, a trip to New York, and participating in The Sketchbook Project. Bonus: Sugene is responsible for this sticker:
Beloved Ones : Terms of Affection in the Arabic Language, by Cathy Khampoor and Timothy Batiuk
Zines F378h 2009
Also known as “Habibi Zine.”
Cocoa Puss #5 : Bigger, Blacker, Harder, Faster, Deeper, by LaMesha Melton
Zines M458c no. 5
LaMesha is a graduate student and mother who discusses dieting, sex, dating, fashion, hair, sluttiness and the sacred whore.
Cutting : a Diary, by Mika Kousaka
Zines K693c 2010
Mika frames the act of self-injury in terms of self-esteem and harm-reduction. She identifies herself as fat, Asian and as a sex worker.
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Click the link for the full list of titles now available at the Barnard Zine Library. Thanks again to Jenna and her team for being such awesome allies.
The WOC Zine group published two issues of their zine collective “Women of Color: How to Live in the City of Roses and Avoid the Pricks.” Issue one is about navigating racism/gentrification in Portland; issue two focused on fashion and art of WOC in Portland.
Both issues are available for $3 from the group, Powell’s Bookstore and In Other Words. The zines can also be checked out from the Multnomah County Library.
The symposium was funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council. The event was also co-sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center at Portland State University (PSU).
The Women of Color Zine Workshops group meets monthly (except during the summer). The workshops will resume October 2012.
To contact the organizers from the Women of Color Zine group in Portland, visit their blog, send snail mail to PO Box 40082 Portland, OR 97240 or email wocpdx AT gmail DOT com. You can also contact Tonya L. Jones, the founder, via Facebook.








