News
DTES RESEARCH
ACCESS PORTAL
Dive into these five zines
Alannah Berson
Co-op student, UBC Library & UBC Learning Exchange
MLIS candidate, UBC iSchool
Zines are booklets–often self-published–that can be full of everything from photos, poems, articles, to anything else that can be printed on a page. From their origins among science fiction fans in the 1930s to 1960s counter culture, 1980s punk, and more recent social justice movements, zines have a long and fascinating history. You can read more about their development and characteristics in this excellent introduction by Laura Van Leuven from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Rare Books blog. Zines have been increasingly used to share research findings in an accessible way. We have recently added zines as a genre to the DTES RAP and are excited to add more!
In this post, we highlight five zines with diverse topics, including food, poetry, projects done through the Carnegie Centre, and a comic about a theatre program at the UBC Learning Exchange.
1. Carnegie Centre: Life Press (1989)
Life Press is a zine where learners from the Carnegie Centre share poems and stories about topics of their choosing. In this zine, learners write in their new language, English, and about everything from keeping chickens (Back to Earth), passing a driving test (Lisa Lo), and processing their feelings (I’m Looking Inside).
2. Carnegie Centre: Bowen Island Trip Memories (2001)
This single issue zine was made by Carnegie Centre members after they took a trip to Bowen Island . Participants share memories, photographs, and creative reflections on their experiences. Some of the themes that emerge are the contrast between urban and island life, and the chronology of their day.
3. Downtown Eastside Neighborhood House: Right to Food Zine (2020)
This is an annual zine that covers food related topics in the DTES. This issue includes reflections and essays on the summer solstice (The Meaning of Solstice), growing up (Grow Up), and DIY container gardening (DIY Kratky Container Gardening). The format of this zine is a little different from the others, using full colour and a more formal layout.
4. Carnegie Writers Winter Book (1996)
“Points of lantern orange and mad roses/danced upon the ocean/against a backdrop of palest birds egg blue.” This zine collects poetry, prose, and other writings from over a dozen members of the Carnegie Centre. Topics range from changes to the neighborhood (Main and Hastings), memories of the winter holidays, and the importance of affection.
5. UBC Learning Exchange: Voices Up the Comic (2017)
This zine tells the story of Voices Up, a group that collaboratively created and staged a play at the Learning Exchange to evaluate a pilot program called “the Learning Lab”. Members of the group were involved in every step of the process from writing to building sets and acting. The zine doubles as a toolkit for those interested in using theatre to share research findings. For further details about this project, you can also read a scholarly article written by Learning Exchange team members
Do you have a favourite zine that we should know about? Reach out to community engagement librarian Nick Ubels at nick.ubels@ubc.ca with your suggestions for items we should add to the DTES RAP collection.
