Same Heartbeats #11 – out now!

Just in time for the local zine fair season (Zine Happening on April 8-9th and Alternatieve Boekenbeurs on the 22nd), Same Heartbeats #11 is out!

This issue contains:

• Interviews with queer-feminist zinesters living in Belgium
• Reports on feminist events (F-word, Elles Tournent, Voix Queer, Take Back the Night)
• Thoughts on doing research about zines, feeling tired, and my new home
• Some little chainsaw bunny drawings

Same Heartbeats #11 is:

A5-sized, 36 pages, recycled paper, bound with colourful yarn.

Buy for 2 euros or suggest a trade (I’m very interested in swapping with other feminist zines!)! Distros: please get in touch!
Mail to: flapper_grrrl(a)yahoo.co.uk

For more zines or other issues of Same Heartbeats, check my zine catalogue.

Feminist Activist Mini-Zine – new mini-zine

This mini-zine about feminist activism was made for Mini-Zine March 2017. It gives you ideas for actions, setting up a group, and participating in the feminist movement as a cisman, and contains a map of feminist projects to join or for inspiration.

Download and print the mini-zine here.
I decided to remove the download link because this zine is slightly outdated now. You can still buy it from me for only 50 eurocents + the price of a stamp though!

The original pdf is in full colour but you can print it in black & white as I did and choose a coloured paper (I chose lavender).

• Folding instructions can be found here.
• More mini-zines can be found and downloaded here.

Feedback always welcome!

Take care when engaging in any type of activism and let’s surf this feminist wave!

 

Happy 2017! (+ news)

Happy New Year!

Let’s make this a year of positive radical change!

Some announcements and news:

• My very first peer-reviewed scientific article called “Write it yourself? Feminist perzines as participatory playgrounds” got published in the journal Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies! It’s about feminist perzines and their value in today’s digital age. Let me know if you’d like to read it and I’ll send you the pdf.
• In 2016 I also contributed comics for #4 and #5 of Ethical Sloth.
• Same Heartbeats #11 is slowly progressing…
• Lately my flapper_grrrl(at)yahoo.co.uk email address doesn’t receive all mails sent from gmail addresses. In case you have/had trouble mailing me, please comment under this post or anywhere on this blog, and I’ll get back to you.

Plans / resolutions for 2017:

• Make zines as usual:
  My plan is to publish Same Heartbeats #11 + another 24 hour zine + a mini-zine this year.
• Do research and write about zines:
  I’m working on a second article and I just love to study the medium of zines in all its facets.
• Make new crafty merch:
  Design new zine-themed buttons, new postcards like the one above, and maybe stickers. Some new bunnies might be born too this year.
• Draw more:
  Make more sketches and experiment with styles and materials, draw at least 2 self-portraits (because I think I forgot to make one in 2016), start working on a graphic novel, make more Chainsaw Bunny comics.
• Read more zines and books:
  I want to read at least 120 zines and a dozen books (including comic books / graphic novels) this year, inspired by this (thanks to Jessica Maybury for the tip!). I’m a slow, easily distracted reader but I also really want to read more and hope this will encourage me. Possibly some zine/book reviews might follow, here or on De Tweede Sekse blog. I’m at 20 zines and 2 books so far, yay!
• Organise!
  Hang out with zine friends, create together, and use our creativity for positive radical change!

Same Heartbeats #10 out now! – anniversary issue zine

New zine: Same Heartbeats #10

Happy to announce… the 10th issue of Same Heartbeats! I’ve been making his DIY feminist personal-political zine for about a decade, releasing an issue almost yearly, and it continues to document the local and less local DIY feminist scene, things that are on my mind, and much more.

Same Heartbeats #10 features plenty of articles and artwork, is decorated with a self-made heart-shaped lino stamp print on the cover and it includes an extra full-colour mini-zine all about Chainsaw Bunny!

Contents of this issue:

• Writings on age, archiving memories, “copyshop disasters”, and Brussels
• DIY: learn how to DJ
• Interview with Fliss of the amazing Athemaura zine
• The Zine Test
• Reports on feminist/queer/diy/zine events
• Comics
• + more

Buy all this for only 2 euros + shipping! Mail me at flapper_grrrl@yahoo.co.uk to order the zine!

(You can pay by paypal, bank transfer, or very well-hidden cash – I have another email address for paypal!! Zine trades accepted too!)

 

In Movement – 24 hour zine out now!

New zine: In Movement

This summer, on August 20-21, friends and I organised another 24 hour zine event in Gent during which I made In Movement (with some finishing touches afterwards). In Movement is a 32-page pocket-size perzine about moving and finding a home. In it you can find stories about all the places I’ve ever lived in, my struggle to find an affordable apartment in Gent, tips for moving and living on your own, reviews of zines about moving, and more. The cover features a blue stamp and the zine is tied with blue yarn.

In Movement is my fourth 24 hour zine because it was made in 24 hours (or more or less 🙂 ). Yay! For my other 24 hour zines – CuNt & Paste, Space Invasion, and Letter Soup – take a look at my zine catalogue.

I’m releasing the 10th issue of my zine Same Heartbeats at the same time.

Buy In Movement for 1 euro + shipping, mail me at flapper_grrrl@yahoo.co.uk.
(You can pay by paypal, bank transfer, or very well-hidden cash – I have another email address for paypal!! Zine trades accepted too!)

Reprint of Same Heartbeats #1-3!

I’m currently working on Same Heartbeats #10 which should come out this year and for this occasion – and the 15th anniversary of my zine project ECHO – I decided to reprint the first 3 issues of Same Heartbeats, which have been out of print for a while. So you can now order all 9 issues of this zine and complete your collection! Triple yay!

 

A little bit of info on the first 3 issues of Same Heartbeats:

Same Heartbeats #1

Same Heartbeats is sort of the successor of Flapper Gathering, which ran for 6 issues and aimed to be the riot grrrl/DIY feminist zine for Belgium. Even though Same Heartbeats is more personal and free, there are similarities such as articles on feminist issues and reports on feminist events. Same Heartbeats started in 2006/2007 as an attempt to make a series of zines in the vein of Not Lady-like which I enjoyed making a lot. I liked the idea of a feminist travel zine mixed with drawings, comics, reports documenting the DIY feminist scene, calls for feminist activism, promoting zines & self-publishing and snippets of “craft enthusiasm”. I basicly write about what I’m interested in. The first issue of SHB includes reflections on DIY feminist activism and looking back on all kinds of exciting events taking place in 2006: Ladyfest Amsterdam, Ladyfest Brussels, Ladies’ Room (a feminist art project I did in Hasselt), Freak Out Fest in Rome and Up The Grrrls in Paris. All in cut & paste hand-made layout.

Same Heartbeats #2

With a drawing of a giant ex-squat in Hasselt on the cover, Same Heartbeats went on. Content includes articles about autonomous media and craft activism, travel/event reports (mini-Ladyfests in Brussels, Ladyfest Berlin 2007, Ladyfest Amsterdam 2008, queer fests and more), and DIY how-tos about Audacity, cloth pads and recycling an old pairs of trousers to an apron/toolbelt. I was clearly enjoying making this zine, so I just kept going…

Same Heartbeats #3

The 3rd issue of SHB and still fully hand-layouted! There are articles on racism in activist movements, DIY vs professional artists, feminist herstory and waves, and self-publishing and feminism, as well as reports from 2008-2009 on Buy Nothing Make Something (an event I co-organised), Infomania talks on feminism, HexeNacht / take back the night, Civil Media UnConference, Zine/DIY Gathering (another event I organised), Ladyfest Liège, L-Salon II and Elles Tournent. And finally  a DIY guide to guitar chords. Lots of Belgian queer-feminist herstory in here as well as more theoretical stuff.

All 3 of the zines cost 2 euros each (+ postage). Mail to flapper_grrrl@yahoo.co.uk to order them. Interested in trades (esp. feminist personal-political zines). Looking for distros too!
More info about all of my zines here.

New zine – Same Heartbeats #9 / Artificial Womb special issue (split zine!)

I’m proud to announce the new zine:

Artificial Womb ALFA / Same Heartbeats #9

Here it is, the first split zine I ever participated in! For this zine, I collaborated with Ana Hine, who’s based in Scotland and who runs the feminist arts zine Artificial Womb. She made a special personal edition of her zine and I delivered half of the pages as Same Heartbeats #9.

In my half of the zine, you’ll find:

• reports on zine-related events
• going to see L7 in Paris
• a short introduction to my band Vagina Dentata
• a new comic featuring Chainsaw Bunny
• a report on F-Word, the feminist DIY festival in Amsterdam

In Ana’s half you’ll find:

• comics (illustrated by Alfie Pound) about her job as her struggle working as a tabloid journalist and recovering from a mental breakdown after leaving that job
• thoughts on relationships and marriage
• an interview with Alfie on how he quit his job to become an artist

So you get 2 zines for the price of one! 🙂

It’s a total of 32 pages, A5 format, printed on recycled paper and tied with lilac cotton yarn.

Curious to know more about Ana and my colaboration? Read more about the making of of this split zine.

How to buy a zine?

1 zine costs 2 euros (postage not included)
Mail to flapper_grrrl@yahoo.co.uk
I have paypal (with another e-mailadres) and I accept zine trades too!

Distros, get in touch too!

Next month, Artificial Womb ALFA / Same Heartbeats #9 will also be available from Artificial Womb distro.

Thanks for the collaboration, Ana!!

 

Mini-zines on how to make your own zine (ENG/NL/FR) – download

A few years ago, during International Zine Month, I made a mini-zine on how to make zines called “Hoe maak je een zine?”. It’s a short practical guide with basic info on how to make your own zine. I wrote it in Dutch to appeal to local audiences and to encourage Dutch-speaking people to make more zines.

 

About a month ago I decided to make a translation in English and now – because Jo and I were giving a zine workshop in Brussels – there is a French translation available too, with help from Jo and Floh.

Whenever I’m tableing with my zines, I try to bring some copies of these mini-zines, but you can download and print them for free too! Here are the links:

• Hoe maak je een zine – pdf (colour) pdf (black & white)
• Make your very own zine – pdf (colour)
• Fais ton propre fanzine – pdf (colour)

And finally, during a workshop in the summer I made another mini-zine with reasons why I like zines, written in English, called “Why I like zines”. You can download and print it too:

•  Why I like zines (more info) – pdf (colour)

Look here for instructions on how to fold the zines.

Same Heartbeats #9 – making of a split zine

So Same Heartbeats #9 is almost finished and as you may or may not know, it’s going to be a split zine! I’m making this zine together with Ana Hine, who runs the fantastic feminist arts zine Artificial Womb. Check out her previous issues, you’ll love it!

Because Ana and I hadn’t decided yet who would make the final pdf in InDesign, I started drawing and writing mostly on paper. So then it would be easier to scan and send digital images of each page. I admit that I also just enjoy doing a lot of zine artwork by hand. Here you can see some drawings in progress and also the editing in photoshop.

Why I like zines – mini zine

During the zine workshop that Jo and I did at CoVen Festival in Cologne, Germany, I started making a one-page folded mini-zine on why I like zines. It was hard to limit myself to such a small format but also a lot of fun (especially because I used a lot of collage and little golden star stickers). It took me a while to finish it, but this week, I finally got around to it…

You can download it here in pdf. After you’ve printed it, you have to fold and cut it yourself. Look here for instructions on how to fold it.

A mini-zine is a very small 8-page zine in A7 format that consists of a folded A4 sheet op paper. They offer many possibilities and are easy and cheap to make even if you don’t have much time (nice to hand out to friends or strangers too!). I have several mini-zines in my zine collection: one about menstruation, several with comics, mini-zines full of humor, some that are both personal and political… You can easily make one yourself. Give it a go! I have plans to make more mini-zines in the future, for example one about feminist activism.

Check my other zines too!

I made another mini-zine about how to make zines before (written in Dutch, but might be translated to English and French soon).

Go ahead and make your own now!