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Visualizing Identities - Visit from the Barnard Zine Library

This guide accompanies Barnard Zine Librarian Jenna Freedman's visit with Aimée Bessire's Visualizing Identities class at Bates College

Zines Are

Zine definition from Scissors & Chainsaws No. 2 : Diary Comic Zine Made in July 2020 During International Zine Month by Nina Echozina, excerpt shared with permission

Zine Quotations

I think of my zine like a trashy celebrity gossip magazine, where I am the only celebrity and instead of journalists gossiping about me, I'm gossiping about myself. Where else would I be allowed to talk about myself for fifty straight pages? I am a young Arab-American female, and in a world where no one else cares what I have to say, this feels really good.

No Snow Here, #9. [2005] [first page] Detroit, Michigan. 


this is another
overreactive feminist poem.
now u can dismiss it
cuz you've heard it all before.
it's so cliché, so passé
it's all the same.
stop reading this now.
it's not valid cuz it's all stolen
cuz my pain is not my own.
this is a waste of time
all my anger doesn't matter to u.
but what should i expect?
i'm an overbearing bitch.
forget u read this.
continue to ignore it.
declare me --girl--
and throw me away.
don't even try to understand.
feminist self-righteousness.
that's what this is.
femayl anger
doesn't matter
cuz we make it up anyways.

Bianca Ortiz. Mamasita #3. 1995. upaginated.

Zine Covers

photo of zine cover: Art History 101, Chingonas (on turquoise paper)

zine cover: Disorientation Guide 2020 sunset vibe over mountain vibe

zine cover: Decolonizing Parenting zine

Do any of these quotations inspire your thinking on your own zine?

Everyone share a word or phase that you associate with zines at this point in your experience with them.

Sillywish #5

Spend a little time skimming the zine and responding to prompts. Five minutes?

Any comments or questions?