In these uncertain times when a lot of us are staying at home* to protect ourselves and others from the corona virus, it’s so important to have some distraction and fun things to occupy the mind. Not all of us can cope well with being locked indoors for several weeks.
One type of distraction can be reading zines, so here is a list of zines I’ve made or contributed to which are available to download for free in pdf format. You can read them on your screen or print them at home if you have a printer. Enjoy!
A mini-zine about making zines:
- in Dutch: Hoe maak je een zine
- in English: Make your very own zine
- in French: Fais ton propre fanzine
(more info)
A mini-zine about some reasons why zines are the best:
A mini-zine about my stuffed bunny Chainsaw Bunny:
- All about Chainsaw Bunny (part of Same Heartbeats #10)
A mini-zine about feminist activism and feminist groups and projects in Belgium:
A collective queer zine made at Antwerp Queer Arts Festival:
A collective zine made at Ladyfest Maastricht 2017:
A collective zine made at Zine/DIY Gathering:
- in English & Dutch: Be All You Can Be
My thesis about anarcha-feminism turned into a zine:
- in Dutch: Hier & Nu
These zines are provided free of charge, in solidarity. If you want to support my work, you can also buy some of these and other zines. Mail me for more info.
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JUST ADDED:
My friend Jo made this zine during the Brussels lockdown after the terrorist attacks in 2015:
This zine was made by a lesbian/bi/feminist collective & guest writers in Brussels and it talks about our relationships to lesbian/bi/female/queer/feminist spaces:
- in English, French, and Dutch: Where We Belong (more info)
❤
If you feel like doing something creative yourself, I can really recommend using this time to make a zine of your own. For me personally it really helps to distract me. You can write about what you’re going through at the moment, how to cope with your mental health during these times, ideas of fun things to do during a lockdown, or something else entirely like little stories about your cat, your favourite books or bands, or how to bring down white-capitalist-cishetpatriarchy. 🙂 You can create your zine entirely or partly digitally (for example with Open Office or Scribus – more resources here) or entirely or partly hand-made with paper/pen/scissors/glue/whatever you want. If you want to make a pdf of your analog paper zine to distribute online, scan it or take high quality photos. Read the above mentioned mini-zine about how to make your own zine or check this list with more DIY manuals. I might follow my own advice in the next few days…
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*My thoughts go out to people who can’t stay at home, including those working at f.e. hospitals and supermarkets.
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