In the first class, students introduced themselves to the other students and why they were enrolled in the class. We had a vibrant group of students who spoke Spanish, Mandarin and English, ranging from age 10 to 70!

After discussing the purpose of zines and self-publishing, we looked at examples of zines. As we looked at the zines, we took notes on the content, design, form and purpose with attention to how the author used the book format to tell a story that may not otherwise be told. After looking at a wide variety of zines, students used bookmaking templates and instruction sheets from Booklyn’s Education manual to experiment with different binding and book forms. Many of the students were innovators who took the basic book design and added new layers and details to create books of different shapes, books that had 3-D effects, and books that included embroidered designs. Having explored the book form a bit, we headed downstairs to view my show, “Source Material for a Poem I’ve Been Trying to Write about Casual Superlatives, National Progress and Palate Cleansers: to consider how we can make use of texture, text and found materials in our self-published materials. Finally, because of curiosity about the text on some of the large printed posters in the show, we watched a YouTube video of Nina Simone performing “Mississippi Goddam” at Carnegie Hall.

The class ended with students reflecting on the materials they will need and the story they will tell to create their zines. Prior to the next class, I will be visiting ABC No Rio and the Barnard Zine Library to gather more examples of zines for students! I am looking forward to next Sunday!

Please click HERE to see the PowerPoint