Zine Fair

SPECIAL EVENT
Zine Fair

Saturday 21 January 2023
11am–4pm
Blackwell Hall, Weston Library
Free, all welcome
About this event
On Saturday 21 January a Zine Fair will take place in Blackwell Hall at the Weston Library. Artists, makers, activists, writers and collectives will share, sell and promote their zines and other book arts, with an emphasis on the amazing array of local zine-makers.
Contributors include: Zindabad Zine, Onyx Magazine, Yente, Sine Theta and Cuntry Living.
To coincide with the fair we will be running free public talks, readings, performances, as well as print and collage-making workshops.
Readings
Throughout the day | Blackwell Hall
Readings by contributors from sinθ magazine. sinθ is an international print-based creative arts magazine made by and for the Sino diaspora.
- 11.15am: Bojin Zhu
- 12.15pm: Tim Tim Cheng
- 1.15pm: Yue Chen
Panel discussion: When are zines the answer?
2–3pm | Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, Weston Library
A hybrid discussion where zine makers share their perspectives on when and why zine making has given a voice to communities, identities, groups, practices and perspectives.
Speakers:
- Black Mass Publishing
- Theophina Gabriel (Onyx)
- Cia Mangat (Zindabad Zine)
- Elisabeth Siegel (sinθ)
Chaired by Lu Williams (Grrrl Zine Fair)
Booking is required to attend this event in person in the lecture theatre.
Talks: Recipe for zine making
11:30am, 12:30pm, 1.30pm and 3.30pm | Blackwell Hall
Are you thinking of making your own zine? Hear from zine makers about what would go into their recipe for making a zine.
Workshop: Collaborate and make with QUEERING SPIRES
11.30am–2pm | Blackwell Hall
Led by Imperfect Bound. A collaborative tiled poster: add a contribution to our latest zine QUEERING SPIRES (which will be available at our table) in the form of a small drawing. Each piece will act as a tile, to be put together (after the fair) as a poster and included in the zine.
Workshop: Collage-making
11.30am–3.30pm | Blackwell Hall
Run by Zindabad Zine. Get stuck in! Assemble your own collage or zine out of paper, magazines, stickers and more found items with Zindabad.
Contributors
Cuntry Living is a feminist collective based in Oxford – it acts a space to platform voices and issues of those identifying and experiencing oppression as women or non-binary.
We are a queer zine collective using craft and a free approach to collage to explore community and care. With members from My Normal, Trans Happiness Is Real, and Common Books, pursuing an art-for-all approach in the Oxford context is what's brought our collective together. Queering Spires was commissioned by the Museum of Oxford as a continuation of the award winning local queer history exhibition first displayed in 2019. The zine will be officially launched at MOX at an evening event on 24 February.
Onyx Magazine began as a dream in Theophina Gabriel's student bedroom at Oxford in 2017. His vision was to launch a creative publication that would be filled with poetry, short stories, artwork, and fresh think pieces. It would be a publication that would unapologetically platform creative Black writers and artists whose work continues to barely scratch the surface of the publishing world.
Yente zine is a zine which focuses on Jewish and Queer identity.
Every edition is named after a biblical character who we believe has been misrepresented and in order to tell the themes of their story we do callouts for any art/writing submission related to that theme!
So far we have had edition Vashti in which the theme was identity/false identity and Ruth with the theme of loyalty/disloyalty.
Now we are working on edition Judith! The theme is RESISTANCE!
Zindabad is an art and literary zine made by and for people in any diaspora. Founded in a 2020 lockdown by Cia Mangat, the zine has released three print issues so far: 'diaspora???', 'aunty issues!' and 'shame / desire'.
Since Covid restrictions have eased, Zindabad has expanded into a community, hosting events such as a diaspora poetry night and open mic at the National Poetry Library and a collaging workshop at one of the Tate Modern's UNIQLO Lates.
The Centre for the Study of the Book fosters the study of book arts through the Bodleian Bibliographical Press and through programmes for universities and the public.
A letterpress workshop in the Bodleian Old Library and a press in the public area of the Weston Library enable hands-on demonstrations and classes for universities, schools and the public.
Since 1949, the Bodleian Library has maintained presses for the purpose of teaching practical printing.
Lu Williams (they/them) is an artist who creates cross-disciplinary artworks, social practice, sculpture, print, zines, video, and events. They make art through the lens of queerness, neurodivergence and working classness. In 2015, they founded Grrrl Zine Fair, a place for self-publishing and DIY art, music and culture surrounding feminist publishing.
Grrrl Zine Fair platforms women and marginalised genders, artists and zine makers through Grrrl In Print zine, a self-publishing fair, panel talks, performances, live music and workshops.
In 2017, Lu founded Grrrl Zine Library, which hosts 600+ queer feminist zines housed at the Old Waterworks in Southend-on-Sea.
Grrrl Zine workshops make zine-making accessible to those alienated by the art world, traditional journalism and institutions. Zine-making is shown to be an adaptable means of self-expression, a tool or a practice of self-care.
Educated at Central St Martin’s (2012–13, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford (2013–16) and The Other MA in Southend-on-Sea (2019–21), Lu teaches and works with community groups and schools as well as universities including Goldsmith’s, Ravensbourne, Oxford University, Essex, UAL, UCL and the SEEC consortium. Their many exhibitions and commissions, four funded by the Arts Council, span a range of art disciplines and activities.
Location
Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG
Wheelchair access
The Weston Library is wheelchair-accessible.
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