'Empowering authorship': Columbus Zine Club invites community to monthly workshops
Since July, a group of community members have huddled around a table once a month in the children's section of Prologue Bookshop,841 N. High St., with magazine clippings, printer paper, glue sticks and markers sprawled about.
They gather for one purpose — to make zines.
Organized by Rebecca Richardson, a part-time Prologue bookseller and teaching and learning coordinator at the Wexner Center for the Arts , the Columbus Zine Club takes place every month with a local artist who leads participants through a workshop that incorporates their practice with the art of zines.
"I just love the idea of having somebody local teach other locals," Richardson said. "That's what I'm all about. It just makes the experience much more enriching."
Short for "fanzine," zines may come in many shapes and sizes, but generally, they're noncommercial booklets or pamphlets published by individuals or a group of people to share with the community.
In several social movements throughout history, such as the feminist-punk movement Riot Grrrl , zines have been used as a platform to amplify underrepresented voices and stories.
A champion of free and independent expression, the sky is the limit when it comes to a zine's contents — poetry, visual arts, comics, personal narratives, essays, it's all fair game — and all you need, she said, is some simple craft materials.
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"(Zines) give you so much autonomy to tell whatever story you're trying to tell the way that you want to tell it, as authentic as you make it," Richardson said.
"It's just got such a rich history of serving people, giving people a platform. I think the value of it is really empowering authorship."
This month, local comics creator, scholar and professor Jaromir Stoll will lead a workshop on poetry comics on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
To stay updated, check out the club's Instagram account @zineclubcolumbus .
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Zine Club hosts monthly events to help the community get creative
