Politicising Everyday Life: A Zine-Making Workshop

Day 1 5 pm 2 hours English

Zines are self-published and non-profit publications rooted in underground subcultures, and what bell hooks have described as “a pedagogy for hope”. Usually produced in DIY fashion with a low budget, zines are an alternative to mainstream publishing, zine-making allows women, gender minorities and other marginalised people to engage in creative self-expression to speak for themselves in a society that does not make space for them.

The personal is political by reflecting on our own work. Zine-making is an act of creative rebellion. You choose to write and create what you intend to articulate. A zinester is the writer, the producer, the publisher, and the distributor of a book. Deeply personal, zines are a testimony to taking the means of production into their own hands. With uncompromising honesty and mischievous creativity, producing a zine allows you to share with others what you have been wanting to say but never had the chance to!

This workshop “Politicising the Everyday Life” aims to provide participants with the tools to recount, contest, and politicise the seemingly ordinary. I will be sharing about Malaysian zine culture, the basic skills of zine-making, including DIY crafts and design, feminist pedagogy for zines, as well as copywriting strategies for the rebels.

This will eventually lead to the second session where participants are asked to draft and create their zines. Zines also promote community building by fostering a gift economy of sharing and exchange in a community as well. Thus, the third session participants will be encouraged to swap and share their zines among one another.