Posts tagged Zine Spotlight

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

ZINE SPOTLIGHT: Not Straight Not White Not Male

TITLE: Not Straight Not White Male

AUTHOR: rosi

ORIGIN: Los Angeles, USA

RELEASE: December, 2012

DESCRIPTION BY AUTHOR:

I wrote this zine because there is a lack of media that I can really, truly relate to. It is glaringly obvious that this radical scene is comprised mostly of heteros, of whites, and of males. I am Asian, I am hella gay, and I am female.

Disclaimer: I wrote this for me a lot more than I wrote it for you. There is a lack of solution offering, and at the same time a lot rambling, because it is cathartic for me. It is highly anecdotal; I write from experience. Don’t assume that my aim is to educate ignorant fucks. It is not my job to cry and bleed so that they can fucking evolve.

Always for the greater gay,
xROSIx

ROSI, IN HER OWN WORDS:

I am Vietnamese-American, female and hella gay (also vegan, straightedge, intersectional-feminist, anti-theist/agnostic and non-pacifist). So this is written from that perspective.

POCZP REVIEWS ‘NOT STRAIGHT NOT WHITE NOT MALE’

By Joyce Hatton, POCZP Midwest Coordinator

Yesterday I was leaving the gym with a friend of mine, and we were debating the existence of the “Lobster and Lefse Festival.”  I said “But it’s a whole weekend! How can you make a whole weekend out of lobster and lefse?!”  Two older white women started chatting with us and assured us that it was a real thing, and yes, it was a weekend long.  It was a friendly chat until one woman said “Here in North Dakota we can make a weekend out of anything,” and suddenly my friend and I weren’t laughing.

It hurts when people assume that I’m not from here, that their culture is not my culture.  It burns, because I know the only reason they think that is because I’m black.  I am steeped in Uff da culture, this is my home, but I am always treated as in outsider in my home.

I recently read “Not Straight Not White Not Male” by rosi, and it was a balm to my irritated soul.  In the disclaimer she said “I wrote this for me a lot more than I wrote it for you.  There is a lack of solution offering and at the same time a lot of rambling, because it is cathartic for me. Don’t assume that my aim is to educate ignorant fucks.  It is not my job to cry and bleed so that they can fucking evolve.”

rosi addresses many issues, her relationship with her mother, who rosi sometimes felt embarrassed by, because of her mother’s lack of assimilation into American culture; privilege; a desire to be white/internalized racism; becoming comfortable with her Asian identity; misogyny; animal rights, and more.  rosi writes about these topics very honestly and with so much anger, but amazingly, no bitterness.  It was very helpful and eye opening for me to read, as I struggle with many similar issues.

I think that, in addition to “just” being cathartic, zines such as this contribute to a person’s growth.  For a person of color to admit to themselves that they want/had wanted to be white is a huge thing, and to share that with someone else is so powerful.  Internalized racism is partnered with shame, and so to be able to open up and communicate about these issues, and learn that other people feel this way to, is a huge step to decolonizing the mind.

In “Proving Myself: as an Asian and as a Female” rosi shares the way her thoughts influence her actions.  For example, if a man notices them checking the oil level in her car, she will go buy oil and add some, just to show the man that, yes, she, a woman, knows how to replace her oil!  It seems that rosi has had her competency called into question so often that she feels the need to preemptively display her ability.  It is so unfortunate when we modify our behavior to suit or defy those people, because that means we are less free.  We think we are defying the bigotry, but really it is winning because we are still letting it control us.  rosi knows this, and as she noted, she offers no solutions, but it’s a big, wonderful deal to know you’re not alone in that struggle.

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CONTACT ROSI + ORDER NOT STRAIGHT NOT WHITE MALE

forthegreatergay.tumblr.com/ask

forthegreatergay@gmail.com

Order on Etsy

ORDERING NOTE FROM ROSI:

GEEEET IIIT:
- i won’t charge you if you live in vietnam.
- if you need a shipping option for your country added, let me know
- real-life friends, you don’t have to pay me, doopies.
- can’t afford it? wanna trade for your zines? message me
- if you want a pdf instead of a hard copy, message me before even adding it to you cart.
- infoshops, distros, galleries; let me know in what spaces you plan on hosting this zine

‘NOT STRAIGHT NOT WHITE NOT MALE’ CONTENTS

Hand-designed cover

Introduction note

“And Ode to Chinkophiles: Y.e.l.l.o.w.F.e.v.e.r”

”Chauncey: This fucking guy” - a detailed account of the wildly inappropriate escapades of a middle-aged white man projecting his yellow fetish onto yours truly

“I Have Discovered the Words with Which to Express my Visceral Resentment of White Cockiness” - where I bitterly examine my aesthetic inferiority complex
(^ and a follow-up clarification on the preceding essay)

“Sorry, Mom” - being vietnamese-american in america can be fucking irritating..

“Pre-Gay” - some things i want to say to old friends and family

“But Really, Come On, You Surely Know By Now” - about the differences in expectations in ‘female’ attire and aesthetic and ‘male’ attire and aesthetic

”Dysfunction Over Fashion” - how my boi-complex fucks with my wardrobe choices

“Proving Myself: as an Asian and as a Female” - where I discuss, shortly, my relentless need to prove to everyone that I can be “better” than my stereotype
(^ and a follow-up clarification on the preceding essay)

“Your Masculinity is Under Attack: In response to the new onslaught of ad campaigns that perpetuate sexism under the guise of ‘making fun of sexism through exaggeration’” - an obnoxious, satirical piece

“A Documentation of Vocalized, 21st Century Gendered Bigotry” - where i list just a few months’ worth of sexist, patronizing remarks

“A Documentation of Vocalized, 21st Century Racial Bigotry” - where i list some racist remarks I’ve received throughout my life

“Not Asian Enough / Too Asian: month one - working in a Vietnamese restaurant couched in white O.C.”

”Broken” - a weird arty thing symbolizing South East Asian-American diasporic identity crises idk

“E.S.L.” - short and dry. about my being a 1st generation American in my family and not understanding American customs

“A/S/L? 13/M/CA” - a short essay about how i used to create online role-playing characters to live out my dreams and escape my identity

”Don’t Tell Your Parents I Think They’re Racist: (unless I’ve asked you to)” - PSA to white allies. In summary, don’t decide for me when I should have race talks/race fights, and don’t decide for me which relationships I must now compromise for the “greater good”

“White People Making White People Jokes” - where i discuss why i don’t think it’s always appropriate

”Sup, Hypocrites” - shortly addressing skinny-shame, prude-shame, and femme-shame

”Microcosms of Patriarchy” - hiding from the world in the radical scene does not mean hiding from non-consensual, intimate contact, unfortunately

”Being Conscious of Womanhood” - an analysis of the unconscious things i do because i am hyper-aware of what it means to be a woman in this society

”On Privilege, Allies, and Bitterness” - me listing and rambling for a page about the aforementioned topics

“Cathartic Vomit” - me being pissed about this and that

comic relief

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COMMUNITY: Do you want to review zines for POCZP? 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.

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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

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

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

ZINE SPOTLIGHT: ‘Colita de Rana: Love, Identity & Panochas’ and ‘Watermelon: and other things that make me uncomfortable as a black person’

By Cata, POCZP Intern

“Colita de Rana…Love, Identity & Panochas”  by Tracy García and company (2012)

This zine opens with a labeled cartoon vagina. Ok, wait. Back story: Colita de Rana = frog tail—it’s from a saying that signifies healing. And: Panochas = Pussy.

The ideas in this zine were loved into pages by anger, angst and ambition. I know this because I saw it’s spirit awake when one of my friends (a co-author) attended a QPOC, Queer People of Color conference back in the day and we took a Panocha workshop. The most powerful experiences, people, books, zines, movies, artwork plant the seeds of future creation. This is the fruit of one of those seeds. In Colita de Rana there are plenty of female anatomy lessons, self-love reminders and a gesture to genetic trauma.

My favorite page is a poem by a lady from Inglewood (my dad’s old stomping grounds). She talks about the domestication of love… “how did love become so scary? was it the moment it got domesticated?” This a powerful question hidden on the third page of the zine.

Seeing this quote through the zine’s title can lead the question: How can we heal from domesticated love? What is that? Certainly it involves government control and production of a certain kind of love.

Page 8 displays a cut-out of a dinosaur called a “clitosaurus” above the prehistoric animal is a quote about the deportation of lesbian undocumented immigrants in the 1990’s. Shit is real. Colita de Rana lets us know.

Disarming dinosaurs still deliver through history. Our history, herstory unknown rather wished erased and gone but still lingers at the bottom of some hearts. This anatomy textbook for the “exploration of love, identity and panochas” is humble but proud. Check yo’ self, she says.

Page 10: heterosexual questionnaire. It’s your turn, straight folks, to have your coming of age story be commodified, died this hue then this shade and retried again and again —tooth combed for possible in-congruencies or untruths.

I love this zine and I hope they keep on the riot. This zine would be a great new friend to all questioning and angry Xican@s. Bring them on.

READ & DOWNLOAD COLITA DE RANA

“Watermelon…and other things that make me uncomfortable as a black person” by Whit Taylor (2011)

I found this gem at zine fest in dc this past July. Really, nothing can beat a fantastic new zine in the dead of summer heat when you think who is so noble and great that they are out promoting their zine? And then, there is someone.

Besides the fortuitous timing Whit Taylor is a great mini story shower/teller. In her zine she is showing us why certain things don’t roll so smooth for her. She keeps the tone light even during more serious topics. Taylor is able to do this because of a dry and even tone through out the story. Her drawings rock. They remind me of the drawings from Tina’s Mouth, another awesome lady comic.

Watermelon can easily find a place among folks working to deconstruct the stereotypes that can plague different communities. Humanizing an experience is a big part of breaking down stereotypes. When you don’t know someone personally its easier to paint them as something their not.. literally. Tayor does a great job at this. In fact my favorite quote from her is: “I love Alice in Chains, which according to my uncle makes me a teenage white boy. I grew up on my parents’ 1960’s & 70’s soul music but became a victim of 90’s suburban life. So sue me.”

Her honesty is fresh. And yet it leaves me wondering about somethings… like what about her cousins in the frame about New Orleans? What kind of comic/zine would they write? Would they agree with her? These are questions that often come up for myself as I and many other creators find pieces of their autobiographies show up in their work…would my family/community agree? How do they see it?

And this is what’s great about Watermelon. This is how Taylor experienced growing up where she did, being who she is. Really that’s all we got: our experience and it’s one that others are either going to learn from or identify with. And zines really open up a space for folks who usually don’t show up in books or magazines to share their version.

Thanks Ms. Whit Taylor, for sharing yours.

Watermelon is a great zine about one girls’ reflections on the stereotypes that live in her world. Specifically this zine helps to thwart the power these stereotypes might have on others by simply humanizing them and breaking them down. After all it did spark a pretty humorous discussion in my house about our own battles with awkward/embarrassing moments striving to straddle the lines between our cultures and the way others see us in our culture.

It’s a daily deal, as is shown by Whit Taylor in Watermelon.

ORDER WATERMELON HERE.

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHIT TAYLOR whimsicalnobodycomics.com

COMMUNITY: Do you want to review zines for POCZP? 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.

ABOUT CATA

Cata is a two-spirit mixed race writer/yogi/graphic novel reader/zine lover in Washington, D.C., originally from the LBC (Long Beach California).

http://agraphiclens.wordpress.com/

http://uchueca.tumblr.com/

ZINE SPOTLIGHT: I Trust My Guitar #1

ZINE TITLE: I Trust My Guitar #1

ZINESTER: Rachel Aggs, singer/guitarist/violinist of Trash Kit

RELEASE: January, 2012

ORIGIN: London, England

SAY HELLO: rachel.aggs@gmail.com, http://r4ggs.tumblr.com/

DESCRIPTION BY RACHEL:

I Trust My Guitar is a music fanzine that i have just finished making. Issue One is about African music, not sure what the next issue will be about. there are lots of spelling mistakes and i had to glue two of the pages together because there was an odd number. the title is taken from a Magik Markers album that i like.

I wanted to make a zine that’s an unpretentious take on music from around the world. I love talking and writing about music but i’ve always felt like because im not technically ‘good’ at writing i didn’t have a voice - reading zines made me feel stupid for thinking that and seeing as music writing often seems either so caught up in whats hip or being willfully obscure and highbrow, i thought i’d carve out my own space and make my own noise.

i want to write personal, goofy stuff about the music that inspires me and the people who make it and use this process to learn more about different cultures and histories ETC.

i’ll be selling issue one at all the TRASH KIT shows but if you can’t make those and you’d like a copy then get in touch: rachel.aggs@gmail.com i dont have paypal yet but im happy to accept zine/tape swaps as payment!

POCZP member Osa Atoe’s review:

‎This is the loveliest zine I’ve read in a while. Some parts hit so close to home, I feel as though I could’ve written the words myself.

“I Trust My Guitar” is a zine by Rachel Aggs, a musician & artist from London, England who plays in the bands Trash Kit and Covergirl and adores The Ex. Her bands are in the vein of arty, exploratory post-punk, but this zine is all about her love of African music.

I love the way she reveals bits and pieces about her own life and identity and also manages to tie African LGBTQ politics in with her writing about her favorite music from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mali and beyond.

She dedicates her zine to the late David Kato, a Ugandan teacher and LGBT activst, interviews Eddy of Dream Beach Records, writes about musicians Bernard Kabanda, Mohammed ‘Jimmy’ Mohammed, Getatchew Mekuria and much more!

READ ITMG NOW: