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Anarchy in the UK

Recently we added four issues of the Lesbian and Gay Freedom Movement newsletter to the archive.  These issues span from 1991-1995 (#5, #6, #8, and #10) and cover a bunch of topics ranging from anarchy to pornography to BDSM and political prisoners.  With the AIDS crisis in full swing, and the closing of the baths and policing of sex happening in lots of places both from outside and from within queer communities, it’s very interesting to read about a push for sexual liberation in it’s various forms.

Everybody is a bit Bowie-sexual

We woke to the news that David Bowie died yesterday.  He has been a favorite at QZAP for seemingly forever.  We honor him for his gender bending, his bisexuality, and his creativity over the years.  He has inspired us in so many ways, and we’re not the only ones.  We knew that on this sad day we just had to share Bowierama and reiterate the obvious:  Everybody is a bit Bowie-sexual.

Boy Crazy Boy

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve been able to catch our breath and post a Queer Zine of The Day.  Lots has been going on with us. Chris went to the Lexington Zine Fest in September to do a presentation.  Milo is getting geared up for the Olympia Zine Fest next week where ze is participating on a panel.  We’ve also been busy with the planning of the Milwaukee Zine Fest, of which we’re part of the organizng committee.  That weekend, November 14, we’ll also be hosting our last zinester-in-residence for the season.  Last year’s Z-i-R program created the awesome “From the Punked Out Files of the Queer Zine Archive Project,” and we’re super excited to publish the work from this year’s residents.  Expect that to come out sometime at the beginning of 2016.

Moving on to the QZOTD, we are happy to present Sina Sparrow’s Boy Crazy Boy #1.  Sina has been a long-time QZAP pal and is an amazing and active comic artist.  In BCB #1 we can see the beginnings of his sweet style, and are treated to some delicious early 1990s pop humor.

QFemZine

Hanna from QFemZine in Finnland is looking for some assistance with some zine research.  Please see their note below and contact them if you can help.  Thanks!
 

Dear zinester!

My name is Hanna Storm and I'm from Finland. I'm intersectional
queerfeminist activist, free researcher and also a zinester myself.
Currently I'm researching on queer zines, especially queer-femme zines.
I've read many queer-zines in Queer Zine Archive Project and been impressed. The
research project is about researching on zines themselves, zinesters and
their zine-activism and how together with zinesters and me as a
researcher-zinester we could do some activism.

In my research I'm interested in questions such as zinesters' age ncy  ;and
its goals, intersectionality, definitions of queer and femme, using social
media beside paper zines and organizing some activities around paper-zines.

Now I'd like to ask if you and other zinesters on your zine would be
interested in participating in my research project. I'd like to do some
interviews and discuss with you online by writing (e.g. using riseup.pad.)

It would be great to hear from you soon!

Please forward this message!



Best wishes,

Hanna Storm. Ph. D.
halkeilla@riseup.net
*QFemZine - Queeriä ja Feminismiä/QFemZine - Queer and Feminism*
qfemzine@gmail.com
facebook.com/qfemzine
qfemzine.blogspot.fi

 

Up The Gay Punks

It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve posted a QZOTD.  We’ve been quite busy with our QZAP summer residency, reading queer fanzines, and getting ready for the autumn zine fest season.  On that note, Chris, one of QZAP’s co-founders, will be in Lexington, KY this weekend at the Kentucky Fried Zine Fest.  If you’re in the area you should stop by and see him.  He’ll have copies of “From the Punked Out Files of the Queer Zine Archive Project“, among other things.

Now, for today’s QZOTD we’ve got a blast from the past…  It’s Anonymous Boy!!!  Specifically, Anonymous Boy Collection #2, but really you should check all of them out.  Anonymous Boy has been making comics and music and DJing since the late 1980s.  His work has appeared in a number of different publications, including JDs and several of the Y.E.L.L. zines from ACT-UP/NY.  Most recently he was on a panel with Chris (QZAP), Rachael House (Red Hanky Panky, among others) and Elvis B. (Homos in Herstory) at the Queers and Comics conference that took place this past spring in New York City.

 

Unsafe Zone Training

As we quietly slide into September we begin to think about what are, for North Americans, annual end of summer rituals and events.  In the U.S. we get a day off from work to honor workers.  We get ready to pack up our children, our siblings, and ourselves and head back to school, where ever that may be.  In these postmodern times there may be a GSA (gay/straight alliance) in middle and high schools to support LGBTQ+ students.  At the Uni there may be an LGBT Resource Center, there may be a Women’s and Gender Studies program, and a way for queer students to socialize and learn without fear of violence interrupting their studies.  Many uni’s across the country have even taken on a Safe Zone training series to help faculty and staff who might not be queer themselves help students.  But what if the very institution hates you and wants to inflict violence on you for being queer?  Who do you turn to?  How do you survive?  Several years ago a group of anonymous students at Harding University put out a zine telling their stories about being queer at an ultra-conservative Christian university.  The State of the Gay at Harding University is an act of bravery in and of itself, and we’re lucky and proud to have such a courageous document in the archive at QZAP.

Angst In Our Pants

SO, it’s not totally fair to say that Busy Bea’s Bush #3 is all teen angst.  There’s a little bit of that, but really it’s just a great zine of it’s time.  Nicole captures 1993 perfectly with rainbow taped backpacks and freedom rings acting as a hanky code for another queer girl in her school.  She writes about getting to meet G.B. Jones, has a current play list of stuff she’s listening to, participaing in Pittsburgh’s Riot Grrrl chapter, and getting a painful tattoo.

Hell Yeah!!!

Hell Yeah!!!  Hell Yeah for weekends, Hell Yeah for zines, and double Hell Yeah for consent-based porn zines!!!!  The creator calls it porn.  Maybe it’s more erotica? There’s some gender fucking.  There’s some masturbation.  There’s some hand-holding.    Either way, this Hell Yeah makes for some delightful reading with ones hands on ones sexy bits on this warm afternoon.

H.E.L.P.!!!

H is for Hackers with
E is for Experience
L is for Love us
P is for Please!!!

Hi friends and fans,
We're reaching out to ask for help because we're growing in ways that exceed our current expertise. We are seeking an extraordinary person to join our collective zine archiving project as a volunteer codemonkey/hacker/webdork programmer to help us fix and maintain our website at archive.qzap.org.


The Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) is a labor of love, freely organized as a collective of volunteers in its eleventh year of existence. As unpaid staff ourselves who are recognized by peers and our audiences for our vital queer zine preservation efforts, we know it is important to acknowledge and value all the work that goes into making QZAP an innovative leader in digital and community archives, especially on the tech side.  We currently do not have a collective member with the skills to grow our website to meet the demands from our users. Maybe you have the skills, or you know someone who does, who has the time to make a commitment to help us in the months and years to come?

Here are the skills we're looking for:

  • Know your way around a LAMP instance
  • Strong in PHP
  • Top notch CSS styling guru
  • Have worked with digital cataloging systems. We use Collective Access (CA)
  • Are familiar with DublinCore (or better yet xZINECOREx)
  • Have clear and open communication skills (written, verbal, hankie code)
  • Can write documentation to beat The Boys in the Band


Additionally important:

  • You like and understand zines or have a curiosity about DIY print publishing
  • You like queer culture and history or are open to learning about it
  • You work well with "little-A anarchist" collective (dis)organizing


We have a short list of projects that need attention and are beyond our ken at this time including making our CA instance mobile friendly, fixing the clicky-ness of our metadata, adding SOLR indexing and search to our CA instance, and more.

This is an unpaid volunteer position with potential to gain world-wide recognition in providing a unique service in the field of digital archiving and zine cataloging.  If you or someone you know are able to assist us, please get in touch.

Many Thanks,
The QZAP Crew

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