The Sinew That Shrinks

I have a new zine out, called “The Sinew that Shrinks.” You can buy it from Quimby’s (it’s listed under Sassyfrass Circus #8) or send me an email (sassyfrasscircus at gmail dot com) if you want one! It’s a mix of writing, collage and comics, 30 pages. Also Quimby’s is restocked in a bunch of my older zines, though they’re all listed under different author names so you have to search by title.

Edie Fake writes: “Brager circumnavigates the physical remnants of loss, specifically the electric energies of the departed. The pieces that make up this zine constitute an experimental essay on ghosting, memory, were-wolvery, vibration and the psychic and emotional impact of families, given and chosen.”

–jb

Call for Submissions: Doykeit #2

Doykeit #2—“Diaspora”

The concept of ‘doykeit,’ Yiddish for ‘hereness,’ is taken from the pre-World War II Polish-Jewish group The Bund, which believed that Jews have both a right to live and a political commitment to work for change ‘here and now.’

Doykeit seeks to speak to the cross-sections of Jewish and queer/feminist identification and how these might inform an anti-Zionist or Palestinian solidarity politic.

For this issue of Doykeit, we ask for writing and art that considers one or more of the following topics: diaspora, home and “homeland,” galut, displacement, dispersal, remembrance, intergenerational relationships, borders, nationalism, and violence.

“The word ‘diaspora’ means dispersion. It originated in the Septuagint, one of the original Greek translations of the Bible: Deuteronomy 28:25: ‘thou shalt be a diaspora in all kingdoms of the earth.’…”

Some questions to consider:

–site(s) of diaspora and site(s) of “home”

–diaspora in a globalized society

–What does it mean to be a diaspora Jew (politically, spiritually etc.)?

–How is diaspora complicated/ take on different meaning in different Jewish communities (ethnic, geographic, denominational, etc.)?

–How do we build solidarity between/ within diasporic/ exilic communities?

EXTENDED DEADLINE: Due JUNE 1st May 1^st 

500-1,000 words preferred

Either formatted into a ½ size zine page or unformatted word document

Images must be black and white, 300+ dpi

Send submissions/ inquiries/ requests for Issue #1 to sassyfrasscircus@gmail.com

Until the sea shall free them

I got asked to draw some kind of Haraway mermaid assemblage by my buds at Hoax zine, and it happened to coincide with a Leonard Cohen kick, so I was thinking about drowning sailors and mermaid assemblages which led to thinking about drowned zombie sailors self-assembling into mermaids which led to this drawing.

Back to reading about ghosts and capitalism,
JB

Zine reading in Philly on Sunday!

Baltimore Zine Bazaar next Friday!

Me and my whole non-abbreviated legal name (for good measure my middle name is Rebecca) will be peddling zines and maybe embarrassing myself verbally at the Zine Bazaar at the Radical Book Pavilion next Friday, September 28th! None know what wonders may await you.

jb.

Submit to Femme a Barbe #4–Deadline July 20th!

Make a spectacle of yourself. Join the Femme a Barbe insurgency!

Femme a Barbe is a zine for bearded ladies and other gender outlaws which seeks to use facial hair as an entry point to discuss issues of identity, embodiment, and resistance. For issue 4, we are calling for art and writing that speaks creatively to queer(ed) facial hair–growing it, removing it, whatever resonates with your experience. Hair, particularly in the “wrong” place on the “wrong” body, is politicized and demonized in gendered and racialized terms in cultural discourses and daily interactions. We seek to reclaim these conversations about our bodies, desires, and lives. [Note: The idea of using hair as an "entry point" implies that we hope submissions might go other places and incorporate other things!]

Some topics we have seen/ would love to see submissions on:
–“performing” beardedness
–facial hair and desire/ attraction/ relationships
–intersectional identities
–PCOS/ pathologization/ disability
–hair removal/ concealment
–politics of “passing”
–magic
–monstrosity
–resistance
etc. etc. etc.

All submissions must be:
5×8, Black and White or Grayscale
Written work should be under approx. 1500 words or, if you submit formatted zine pages, stick to about 5.
Images must be at least 350 dpi and JPEG
please send submissions to sassyfrasscircus [at] gmail [dot] com.

NOTE: This zine is titled Femme a Barbe because of the complicated disciplinary and liberating histories around the cultural figure of the “bearded lady,” but does not in any way limit who can and should submit to this zine. “We of the Femme A Barbe insurgency seek to reclaim the term and the symbol of the “Bearded Lady” for its transgressive potential, not as an identity, but as a weapon.” Past Femme a Barbe contributors represent many different genders and experiences, and we hope to continue to expand the topics and stories that the zine is able to capture.

Submit a workshop for the DC Zinefest!

There should also be a form up on the DC Zinefest website soon, but in the meantime you can just email them to us. Kid-friendly workshops especially welcome!

JB

This Friday, Pop-up Zine Library and Readings at the Fridge Gallery!

I’ve been working on putting together the materials for this event for the past couple of weeks and I think it’ll be really awesome! Also I am moving away at the end of the summer/ work a lot, so you should totally come so we can high five and hang out.

DC Zinefest is teaming up with the Fridge to bring you its famous popup library, zine readings, and a popup art show of zinesters from near, hither, and yon. At 516 1/2 8th Street SE (Rear Alley), Washington, DC 20003, 2 blocks from the Eastern Market metro.

Confirmed Readers include
Linsay from The Runcible Spoon
Jen from Jen[ny] Ambular
Rachel from Hoax
Lots more TBA

At $5, it’s a steal!

Come Support this amazing venue and the fest.

Flier by Amy Breesman

–jb

How to make a mini-zine

I don’t think I ever posted this here–the directions for mini-zine making from our pop-up library. I think it’s an improvement on my directions from last year. While I was looking for that post I realized that I used to review zines…maybe I should do that again?

Make a mini-zine and mail it to me and I’ll review it! Here’s a preview:

jb

Pop-up Zine Library at the University of Maryland

On April 5th we held a pop-up zine library in the Women’s Studies Multimedia Studio at UMD (we being myself and Women’s Studies PhD student Melissa Rogers), as “a day-long celebration of feminist self-publishing and DIY cultural activism”. Overall I would say the event was a splendid success–we had a steady stream of visitors including 3 classes of undergrads who were very excited to get their hands on some typewriter keys and gluesticks. The “library” was comprised of several components–over 200 zines (basically mine and Melissa’s collections), alphabetized, cataloged, and shelved; two computers with tabs pulled up with online interviews, podcasts, distros, and archives; a reading area with a coffee table collection of books about zines; and zine-related craft activities, particularly making a page for a compilation zine and learning to make a mini-zine. The catalog, workshop instructions, as well as a list of zine-related resources was all combined into a program for the event. We definitely learned some lessons, like that over 200 zines looks kind of skimpy on a bookshelf, and don’t stand up very well, and are less attractive to browsers than zines hung up on ribbon with clothespins. In general though, I think that everyone who came had fun (I definitely did) and folks left with some new knowledge. This is sort of a quick update since as usual I’m multi-tasking, but I’ll probably post more pics, especially comp zine pics, later.

Here are a couple pictures–I tried to only grab ones with my friends in them so they can yell at me if they don’t want their pictures up, so these don’t capture the masses that descended upon the library, but they do capture some of the activities and the space.

Working on compilation zine pages.

Melissa teaches typewriter skills.

Mid-library carnage--the cardboard alphabet dividers proved no match.

I had to include Rachel's cute outfit.

Zine making is fun!

Anyway I’d love to talk to folks who have done or are interested in doing similar events–we’re planning to do a variation in D.C. in May through the D.C. Zinefest Collective.

–JB