Wednesday November 1
7:00pm-9:00pm
Flywheel
43 Main St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Zines, or ‘fanzines’, have existed in various forms since the 1930s and 40s. Self published magazines on “special interests” like science fiction, books, music and movies eventually grew to encompass more complex topics during the punk era (1976-1994) like class, race, sexuality, gender, abuse, identity, and much more. Before the internet, these publications acted as a peer to peer network of like minded individuals who would hash out various issues that arose in their communities. With the explosion of zines in the last 30 years and their entrance into legitimate sources of cultural discourse and study came the establishment of zine libraries. Zine libraries take many forms (archival non-circulating, public, private, community run, state run, etc.). This panel, consisting of zine librarians and zine producers, will discuss the myriad of issues that arise when introducing zines into the library space.
The event will be held at Flywheel in Easthampton, MA which has an accessible zine library that will be open for viewing before and after the panel. http://flywheelarts.org/
Panelists
Steven Stover, works for Forbes Library, Northampton. He is a co-founder of the Forbes Library Zine Club, a drop-in club open to the public for anyone interested in zines, to provide a community for the mutual support of their creation and appreciation.
Michele Hardesty is currently Associate Professor of U.S. Literatures and Cultural Studies at Hampshire College, where she teaches courses on 20th and 21st century U.S. literatures, American Studies, and comics studies. In Fall 2017, she co-taught a course with Alana Kumbier called “Beyond the Riot: Zines in Archives and Digital Space,” whose development was funded by a Mellon grant in digital humanities and a Teagle grant in blended learning and cross-campus collaboration. She also currently volunteers at Interference Archive, a volunteer-run archive of social movement cultures in Brooklyn, NY.
Jeremy Smith is currently the Digital Projects Manager in Scholarly Communication at UMass Amherst. In his spare time, he volunteers at Flywheel, a volunteer-run non-profit performance arts space located in the old town hall in Easthampton. He was a founding member of the collective in 1999 and is also on the organization’s Zine Club, which catalogs, builds, and maintains