Zine Conference

Attended the Portland Zine conference today. Smiling faces, everyone interacting with someone. Whole communities of zinsters have arisen—all for love of writing with little chance of reimbursement. Maybe that's why there were lots of T-shirts and graphic arts paraphernalia!What writing energy. Some zines profane, others artistic, others mundane, but something of interest could explode from any table at anytime.
The IPRC, Independent Publishing Resource Center, had a table–a good place to start. This resource is available for a sliding fee to anyone who wants to learn about publishing and developing their zine proficiencies: youth programs, workspace, a zine library and outreach are available. Justine had a copy of the recently Oregonian featured "Tell it like it Tiz," a project of the center in which zine writers interviewed elders at the Marie Smith Center—Delightful pearls of wisdom. From Miss B, B.1937 "You want to be real wherever you go." Good advice for writers to write "real." isn't it?
The youngest writer I met was Will, not sure if he was 12 or a bit more. He was busy telling me about his zines he wrote when he was 7,8,10, etc. I picked up his"The City of the Kings: A collection of poems inspired by San Francisco." I share his feelings for City Lights Bookstore: "They have lots of great books/But no bathroom." Now you know. Great pictures too!
Lots more to write about.
Before I leave for the evening, I met at one of the tables, a doctoral student seeking participants for a narrative study of teaching with zines, formally or informally, with any age group. If you want to let her know "how" you are using zines in the classroom, email karinde@tigers.lsu.edu. A resource zine for teachers based on participant responses is one of the products to come out of this study.
The Literacy Lady