I am in Chicago!

i bring zines!

<3 jb

Archiving the Underground Workshop at the Chicago Zine Fest

Been working my booty off on commissions and projects that I will post here eventually. Get psyched for this great panel at the Chicago Zine Fest!

jb.

Mostly not false bravado (too rad for grad school)

I drew this for my friend Malcolm, based on our ongoing conversations around graduate school (rejections and reservations). Part of the sentiment of this drawing is based in legitimate critiques of even wanting to pursue a PhD, but also for me it’s a part of an emotional process of recognizing that getting a PhD is not the be-all end-all of my own intellectual abilities, that I can think and write and even publish outside of the academy. There is almost like a 5 stages of grief thing happening in my sketchbook. It’s funny to think that I have a hard time with the idea of creating without the validation of an institution, since so much of my work with zines hinges on it.

Oh panopticonic admissions departments utilizing google to stalk potential students, please still let me in your ivory tower! I will thanklessly grade your papers and teach your students, read hundreds of pages a day and write essays to be published in obscure academic journals. Because I love you, academia, even if you reject me. Even if you eat me alive.

This is getting grossly and uncomfortably personal, even for someone who draws dildos on the covers of their zines. In other news, you may have noticed that I have changed the theme of this blog and I hope you are not disgusted (speak now or forever hold your peace, silent blog readers).

Also, I am speaking this Thursday at Red Emma’s in Baltimore on the “the history, present, and potential of queer zines” and on similar topics at the Wingnut Anarchist Collective in Richmond on March 12th, unless I decide to talk about something else. On March 26th, Jami Sailor and I will be facilitating a panel called “Archiving the Underground: A Conversation on Zines in Academia” at the Chicago Zine Fest.

See academia? I don’t need you to talk nerdy for free.

<3 j (not resentful) bee

Flier for Chicago Zine Fest Fundraiser

I’m headed to the Chicago Zine Fest again this March, to hang out with my zine buddies, get tons of new zines and debut some new work, hopefully. I’ve also got a workshop with the incomparable Jami Sailor featuring some rad to be announced panelists. In the meantime, Chicago folks, go to this event I drew a flier for.

<3 jb

Zine stars and straight white dudes.

The incomparable Jami Sailor has written a great blog post about the Chicago Zine Fest’s Aaron Cometbus and Al Burian lecture. I personally was hoping for a Zine Prom.

You can read it here: http://yoursecretaryisout.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/current-frustrations/

Mimi Thi Nguyen and other rad punk academics have also written on similar topics, such as the ways in which punk communities reproduce themselves as white.

See you at the Fest,
<3 JB

zine fest zine fest! pt. 1!

The reading at Quimby’s was freaking packed! I think Amber was reading when I took this picture. Can you see her? I can’t either…but check out her blog for way more detailed Chicago zinefest love.

Zine art wall at Johalla Gallery!

The two pieces I had in the art show! (Pic by Shira Pilarski)

On the shelf at Quimby’s…

Shared a table with these cuties.

And this one–the incomparably classy Ryan Dodgson. (Pic by Ramsey Beyer)

Will the owner of this bearded lady tattoo please come forward to be showered with eternal love and affection?

I came home with a suitcase full of zines! Other people’s zines! Not the ones I came with!

As you can see, I fail at taking pictures. But I had a lot of fun despite returning with some kind of horrible disease that has left me bedridden since. Fail! In any case, so much love and thanks to my host Robin Banx and friends, to all those lovely zinesters near and far, especially those who traded zines with me, and to Milo and Chris from QZAP and their friends who fed me oh so good.

i PROMISE a comix update soon. SOON!

<3j.bee

Will I see you at the Chicago Zine Fest?

Last night I bought my ticket to Chicago for the Zine Fest on March 12th and 13th. I am super excited and hope to see lots of amazing folks there, like Amber Forrester of Culture Slut! The first issue of Femme a Barbe will certainly be ready, and we’ll see about a new issue of Sassyfrass Circus.

This morning I did some knitting (making a scarf for an amigui) using this beautiful yarn I bought in Chile while watching reruns of Rupaul’s Drag Race. I really love the colors:

So far my favorite queens are Sonique and Tatianna. I could totally see Morgan McMichaels or Raven winning, I find Sahara Davenport to be a kind of boring performer but a lovely person, and I think Tyra Sanchez is the most obnoxious person on television. Go home.

Also, I got Naomi Geraci’s absolutely beautiful Tuff Town No. 2 in the mail a few days ago and finally have had a chance to sit down with it.


I am so in love with this zine…it’s one ongoing narrative about bike trips with friends, getting arrested, dealing with family…it’s not often that I sit there readying a zine and find myself nodding and saying “fuck yeah!” out loud. Tuff Town No. 2 is 48 pages quarter-sized, typewritten with a GORGEOUS cover. It’s one dollar or trade (a steal f’real!), write to Naomi Geraci at 136 Nectarine Ave. Goleta CA 93117. On page 41 Naomi writes about her arrest, “And despite generally being queer punk scum upon the ‘American Riviera’ I’m well aware that as a white kid of middle-class extraction, I’m not the one bearing the brunt of things. It would be so fucking cool if everyone else wrote zines about it too, but I know that even having the time is a massive privilege.” Dear Naomi: I love you, be my friend. You also make the greatest envelopes ever and I know zinesters everywhere are agreeing with me. In the words of the great Rupaul, CAN I GET AN AMEN?

Going to Baltimore tonight to visit the Fierceness.

Love,
J.Bee