What Is a Zine ?

1. What Is a Zine? rhymes with “bean” challenging, individual, exciting limitless, ephemeral, ever-changing ubiquitous in the 60s and 70s poised for a renewal

2. Zine start ups: 1749 Ben Franklin aka a plethera of pen names The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country. 1517 Martin Luther “These are the times that try men’s souls” “Give me liberty or give me death” 1776 anonymous aka Thomas Paine Da·da or da·da  (dä dä) n. Fr. hobbyhorse A European artistic and literary movement (1916-1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity.

3. Moving right along: 1920s and beyond 1970s punk subculture fanzine TBA: PKY 21st Century 2000s…you can guess what happened… 1980s-1990s 7th Grade Wheel students

4. Where’s Zine world now?

5. And Here’s where you come in… • What are you interested in? • What’s your passion? • What do you do well? • What do you know? • What do you want to tell others about? • What do you want to show others? • What do you want to make? • How do you want to do it? • Can you do it in 9 weeks?

6. So what will you do? • Produce one zine (any appropriate for PKY style and content you choose) • Write short creative pieces for your zine content (Turn in at least one per week from choices offered. You may add additional text and art.) • Make three brief zine talks along the way • Explanation of what you plan to do, why you want to do it and how you plan to go about getting it done (week 3) • Brief “sales pitch” for your zine (a persuasive speech or advertisement using visual aids or media of some kind) (week 6) • Show and tell of your final product and what you learned from the experience (that’s the “final exam”) (week 9)

7. Now what is a zine again? • You are so used to guidelines and definitions and regulations that it may be a struggle to accept that there are very few rules in the world of zines. • Issued by one person not for profit but for self-expression. “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.” • DIY with pen, paper, scissors, glue or the latest in word processing technology…your choice. • “…cut and paste, ‘sorry this was late,’ self-published magazines reproduced at Kinko’s or on the sly at work and distributed by mail or word of mouth.” Chip Rowe • “…can be about toasters, food, a favorite show, thrift stores, anarchism, candy, bunnies, architecture, war, gingerbread men, activism, comics, eating, Barbie dolls—you name it. There are personal zines, music zines, sport zines, zines about politics and pop culture.” Bartel • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine

8. How will class work? • Mondayfor 50 minutes I’ll share samples and guidelines for various types of writing for the week (probably around 4 choices each week). Hopefully on Monday I can also introduce several interesting, cool vocabulary words and terms related to what we are doing. Sometimes we may engage in word games or play to get our creativity and language love going. Be sure to get your questions asked so you can begin your production for the week. Please keep up with handouts I provide and look at interesting links I’ll share with you. You’ll need a secure place to store all your drafts, notes, and ideas too. Bring all this to class each meeting. • Wednesdayin class for 70-80 minutes you can write, draw, cut, plan, help one another (and get help from me) with ideas, editing, art, design, etc. For 20 or 30 minutes, I’ll share something about speech, vocabulary, writing, or zines. I’ll also see if I can get a guest speaker or two from the zine crowd in Gainesville or from some magazine designers, poets, artists and tech whizzes.. • Friday I’ll reserve computers for you or you may bring your own laptop or smart phone. You must have the final draft of your writing ready to turn in by the end of this class. While you have access to computers, you may do other zine related design work as needed. Be sure to bring flash drives or know how to save to your home computer. If you are cutting and pasting and drawing free style, you may use your class time this way. I have cutting magazines, glue, art junque, stamp pads, etc in the room which you are welcome to use if you clean up after yourself. If you are doing lots of work at home and find yourself caught up, you may use some of this class time to read, free write, play word games, or study.

9. What will you know? • Some useful and cool vocabulary • A plethera of creative writing ideas, formats, and models • How to set up and produce interesting designs and formats for your writing, art, and information • Several methods for making magazines • The importance of having several ideas and plans from which to choose the best, and revising and reworking these ideas and pieces • More about yourself, your beliefs, your interests, and your talents • How to plan brief speeches and speak effectively in front of a group • That you can plan and produce a worthwhile project and stay focused on your tasks (and earn a really fun A for this part of the wheel) • That you can continue to be a first class zine master! (and I’ll be a supportive audience and printer)

10. Wow! Cool! Fabulous! Awesome!