Zine Yearbook

by Jen Angel

Seems like zines are old news these days, right? Everyone has done one, everyone has read them, and they're on their way out, eclipsed by the internet and by the fast-paced real world drama of the Independent Media Center and worldwide protests against globalization. Each year, we feel like we are reading fewer zines. It seems like our old favorites haven't published an issue in years or are gone for good. But when it comes time to compile this anthology, we are overwhelmed with the amount of amazing material out there, and we realize that zines have continued to influence and change our lives, sometimes in dramatic ways. Maybe it's that now zines are so incorporated into our lives and our own cultures that since they are no longer "new" and "exciting," we barely realize their presence in our lives. When we take a moment to take stock in the zines we have read this year and in the last few months especially, we wonder why we could have taken them so for granted. Zines essentially represent a person (or persons) being so passionate about an idea that they create a way to communicate that idea to others on a larger scale, a scale larger than one on one. This is a truly important and revolutionary thing, that we live in a world where this phenomenon not only exists but recurs thousands of times every day. Each zine that is read, traded hands, passed on, represents a shared idea. This anthology exists, on it's most basic level, to take some of the current writing that is available in the underground press and make it more accessible. This book allows you to browse through dozens of zines and hopefully find one or two that are so inspiring and right on that you can't understand how you've been unaware of their existence for so long. Beyond that, it exists to remind us all that we have the power to believe what we want, and that we can find others who feel the same. It also reminds us that we are not alone, and that there is something universal and compelling about all of these stories because they come from real people who have real lives and real experiences. - The Editors

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

Jen is a long-time media activist now living in Berkeley, California.

Jen Angel has been a writer and media activist for over 15 years. She is the co-founder and publisher of Clamor Magazine, an award-winning quarterly magazine covering radical culture and politics which ceased publication in 2006. In 2002, she was named as one of “30 under 30 Visionaries who are changing the world” by Utne Reader. She is a founding board member of Allied Media Projects, a non-profit independent media advocacy organization.

Jen’s publishing history includes Clamor (1999-2006), publishing the Zine Yearbook (1996-2004), writing her personal zine Fucktooth (1991-2000), and editing MaximumRockNRoll (1997-1998). Her writing has also appears in magazines such as Bitch, Punk Planet, and In These Times. She is a contributing editor to Yes! Magazine.

She is author of a pamphlet called, “Becoming the Media: A Critical History of Clamor Magazine,” published by PM Press in March 2008.

Her main project is to help independent authors, filmmakers, and artists promote their work through Aid & Abet Booking. Jen has worked with Raj Patel, David Rovics, David Martinez, David Solnit and Aimee Allison, Ana Noguiera, Andrew Stern, Ann Wright, Historians Against the War, SmartMeme, and other radical groups and individuals. She has also worked as a producer for various shows on KPFA Radio in Berkeley.

Jen offers consulting and workshops on media strategy to individuals, campaigns, projects and organizations.

Reviews

[HeavyReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of my favorite pieces in this volume are as follows:

"Bull, Run!" by Maria Tomchick from Eat the State!; "One Young Man's Journey" by Kurt Lane (I know him!) from Phoenix Was a Mistake; and "I Lost Control Today" by Ailecia Ruscin (I know her too!) from Alabama Girl.

[Lisa]

new

[Dreamersemporium]

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