Rachel’s Team Pick:
Happy Monday! What do you do on weekends? Go outside? Have fun? Hug people with your legs? Mostly I like to type things into search fields on the internet. This weekend I tried typing “queer zines” into some things because I felt really strongly that I wanted more of them in my life. It turns out — and maybe this is obvious — that someone (well, several someones really) has used the internet to make this possible!
Typing “queer zine” into places will find you a lot of neat things, but one of my favorite things that I’ve found is the Queer Zine Archive Project. It’s exactly what it sounds like. According to the principle of fair use as archivists, there are literally dozens (maybe more? I can’t count) of queer zines from the thirty to forty years ago to now just waiting for you. It’s not new, but did you know about this? I didn’t know about this. Just a few things you can enrich your life with via QZAP:
+ Learn to make a harness out of bike parts!
+ Read about making zines as a suburban married dyke!
+ “Map and Visitor Guide to Things I Found in My Back Pocket”
+ “I got the title from a Prince lyric because Prince is fucking awesome and also because it pretty adequately sums up the nature of what this zine means.”
+ Thoughts on privilege and also “Invasion of the Nipple Snatchers”
+ A handbook on sexual assault for queer and trans youth!
Can you find all these? (Unofficial scavenger hunt??) Even if you don’t, you can still buy zines, donate to QZAP, submit your own zine, and check out suggested reading and information on events and distros. Also though, building your own harness out of bike parts. That seems important.
