zinemobile-blog

[zinemobile-blog]

Dear you who understand the importance of independent and mobile media projects

Short Version for those with no time or attention spans: PLEASE DONATE TO SUPPORT THE TRANSITION OF THE FLY AWAY ZINE MOBILE TO NEW PEOPLE AND PROJECTS!!  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

Dear community,

The trusty Astro Van that’s served as the Fly Away zine mobile has been handed off to the folks at SoMove, whose incredibly exciting and important tour starts N O W ! Not only will you want to keep up with them because of the critical and engaging work they’re doing, you’ll also want to keep up with them because there’s talk of transforming the van into a magical CAT VAN (!!!!)….

SoMove’s tour ends in mid-June at the always-inspiring Allied Media Conference in Detroit, at which point Noemi Martinez, longtime zine-maker and educator, will inherit the van and transform it into a bilingual mobile library/resource revolving around zines, writing, and self-publishing based in Southern Texas. It’s all so exciting, right?!?!?!!?!

If you’ve been moved or inspired by the Fly Away Zine Mobile’s work, or if you simply understand the importance of supporting independent and mobile media projects (especially in the face of increasing media commercialization and corporatization), WOULD YOU PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION to support the work of these exciting new visions?  While projects like these don’t require a ton of money to operate, fuel and vehicle repair/maintenance (and eventually vehicle replacement) can add up quickly. Any amount is valued and appreciated (Can you spare $5? $20? $100? $500?…); all donations will be split evenly between the two projects. If donating money isn’t available to you, would you consider sharing this message and/or spreading the word about these projects?  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

More updates as things happen…

Love and appreciation,

debbie/fly away zine mobile founder & caretaker

p.s. one more time!

#zine mobile #Fly Away Zine Mobile #independent media #grassroots media #social movements #oral histories #independent media projects #independent media tours #collective organizing

[zinemobile-blog]

The Future(s) of the Fly Away Zine Mobile

THANK YOU to everyone who proposed a new vision for the Fly Away Zine Mobile. It was an honor to read and imagine so many beautiful scenarios from people who share a passion for freely spreading the love and skills of zines and other do-it-yourself media.

THANK YOU to everyone who weighed in and helped direct the decision-making process--Adela Nieves, Celia Perez, Daiquiri Jones, Jenna Freedman, Marya Errin Jones, Miyuki Baker--your perspectives were invaluable and I appreciate you so much.

With apologies for the delay and gratitude for your patience, I'm thrilled to announce that the Fly Away Zine Mobile will live on in these magnificent ways:  From April to July, the Zine Mobile will support the inaugural tour of SoMove, a collective of independent historians, producers, journalists, activists, and artists who’ll be traveling across North America, documenting and sharing social movement oral histories and resources, and offering trainings in media/audio production. When SoMove’s inaugural tour ends in July, the Zine Mobile will go off to South Texas where, under the guidance of Noemi Martinez, it will travel the land between Texas and Mexico. Providing access to voices of immigrants and people of color, the project will evolve into a mobile bicultural and bilingual resource while conducting workshops, teach-ins and readings. While working with both SoMove and Noemi to determine the best place for the zines in the collection, I’ll also be working with Adela C. Licona and Jamie Lee on behalf of the Arizona Queer Archives, an emerging and nonconventional archive at the University of Arizona, who’ll be receiving zines relevant to their curatorial guidelines (which, similar to the Fly Away Zine Mobile’s, are intended to be queer[ed] themselves).

While passing on the vehicle and the zines, I'd also love to pass on some seed money to the two projects that'll be utilizing the van, to go towards fuel, repairs/maintenance, and future vehicle expenses (which, at least for SoMove, will be happening in July). IF  YOU VALUE INDEPENDENT/MOBILE/DIY MEDIA AND CONTRIBUTING FINANCIALLY IS AVAILABLE TO YOU, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO DONATE; all money raised within the next month (by April 21st, 2014) will be split evenly between the two mobile projects (after that date, I'll no longer be monitoring the website). Messages of support and encouragement are also always appreciated for this work; and/or, of course please watch for requests for support and participation from the respective projects. THANK YOU! 

Finally, there are two HONORABLE MENTIONS that I hope you’ll join me in supporting:

Pioneers Press and the Hard 50 Farm Zine Mobile! Pioneers Press is a family-run independent publisher and distributor based at the Hard 50 Farm in Kansas, focusing on sustainability, health/wellness, and food and farming politics. The folks behind Pioneers Press have been doing amazing independent publishing/distribution work for a long time now, and last year received a grant to start the Hard 50 Farm Zine Mobile, a trailer/tent zine gallery that displays literary and visual arts zines. PLEASE support their work in whatever ways they’re asking, look for them when they’re out on the road, and order zines through their catalog!

Green Branch! Green Branch is an emerging nonprofit social justice children’s library in Oakland, California. They’ve been operating out of a pop-up tent reliably and consistently for a while now and recently created an adorable fundraising video that details their hope and search for an Airstream trailer. Please help them get this!

Thanks, everyone, for reading, for supporting and participating, for everything.  Stay tuned for where you can continue to follow the Zine Mobile in its new evolution, and maybe I'll see you again out there someday/somehow?

<3 d

#Fly Away Zine Mobile #SoMove #Noemi Martinez #Pioneers Press #Green Branch #fundraising #futures #on the road

[zinemobile-blog]

It's time to decide the future of the Fly Away Zine Mobile

Dear Fly Away Zine Mobile community and friends,

Half a year ago, as a step towards honoring a call to seek more stillness in my life (for my health and spirit), I sent an email soliciting ideas for the next phase of the zine mobile. The email sparked supportive and inspiring conversations, and I intended to follow up with more focus and specificity, but the overwhelm I’ve felt in some aspects of my life has left me moving slowly. Please accept my humble apology for this delay, which has left the zine mobile out of circulation for so long. And most of all, please accept the gratitude I have for all of you who have been a part (and might be a part going forward) of the zine mobile’s story.

Please share the call below if/as you are moved (friends, organizations, lists, etc.), but please do not email ideas or suggestions that require me to follow up, as I don’t have the energy to do that. (In other words, I ask that only those interested in taking on the zine mobile and/or collection themselves respond, rather than those with ideas for places to which I might want to reach out.)

While this is a call for new curator(s)/caretaker(s) to take on the next life of a project that I started, I am open to the zine mobile coming to an end if that is the future that awaits it; I just want to give folks the chance to breathe their own vision into it and be at its helm if they so desire.

Love,

debbie (zine mobile caretaker)

CALL FOR NEW ZINE MOBILE CARETAKER(S)/CURATOR(S)

(Free to a good home! The zine mobile and its library - together or separate!)

After two years and 30,000 miles driving (in spurts) across North America, I’m looking to donate the Fly Away Zine Mobile to a new caretaking/curating individual or team. Read here to find out more about the zine mobile if you aren’t familiar with it and read below for more details on the possibility of handing off the zine mobile torch.

The priority is to pass the zine mobile along (whether it continues to go by that name or a name chosen by its new caretaker/s) to a person or people who will maintain its focus as a project somehow related to reading and writing (though ideas for a non-literary project will be considered as well, so if you have such a vision, please feel encouraged to respond).

There is flexibility around the zine mobile and zines staying together or separating. If you are envisioning a project involving the zine mobile that doesn’t focus on zines or the zine library, the zines can be donated elsewhere. Likewise, if you are envisioning a project that involves the zine library, the zine mobile can be donated elsewhere. There is also flexibility about utilizing the van as a mobile space or as a parked/unmoving space (reading room, museum, etc.)—particularly since it’s getting older and requires a lot of gas to keep running.

Up until this point, my priorities as a caretaker/curator have been to feature zines about healing/wellness, do-it-yourself/resource zines, and zines about prisons and/or by prisoners. You don’t need to feel beholden to curating and caretaking the zine mobile in the same manner and style that I did. I am receptive to (and excited about) other visions and ideas. I encourage you to use your imaginations in terms of moving forward – the shape of this moving forward is open and fluid.

My one request if the zine mobile does continue is that the future person or team maintains the commitment of keeping access to it free of charge -- in the interest of getting information and materials into the hands of those that need it. (For example, allowing an opportunity for participants accessing the zine mobile to donate to the project is along the lines of the “keep it free” vision, while requiring money from people to participate is not.)

VEHICLE  DETAILS (a quick internet search of ‘Fly Away Zine Mobile’ will yield many photos)

1997 automatic chevy astro conversion midsize van (the size is midway between a mini van and a full-size van)

Please realize, since the vehicle is 16 years old, it has some quirks and weirdness one would expect for an aging vehicle; the bottom has rust from spending its first 13 years in Minnesota. It’s also not great on gas (16-17 miles to the gallon). That said, it’s received regular upkeep/maintenance and up until this point has been incredibly reliable, not presenting any major problems. Relatively speaking, it’s also low mileage (130,000). The inside is extremely cozy with lots of small wooden cabinets, track and overhead lighting, and a back couch that folds down for sleeping. When the zine mobile was circulating, the two middle seats were removed to make space for a small reading room. Those seats have been put back, so you can keep them in or remove them. With all chairs in place, it seats seven people with seatbelts.

COSTS INVOLVED:

I’m passing the zine mobile along for free, not selling it, though there will be a minimal cost for transferring the title/registration (I believe this will be about $150)

Main cost: insurance = about $400/year, depending on your driving record

Registration renewal/license tabs is about $50 a year

(Insurance and vehicle registration won’t apply if the zine mobile will be used in a parked/stationary way).

The zine mobile is currently located in Madison, Wisconsin. Arrangements could possibly made to get the vehicle somewhere else.

THE ZINE LIBRARY:

Is comprised of approximately 1,800 zines, broken down into these categories. 

Please note the use of unconventional categorizing; most are categorized by topic, but some are categorized by size or format (e.g., little zines and newsprint). The zines have not been cataloged, and there is currently a backlog of uncategorized zines.

If you are interested, please email [email protected] by February 1, 2014, with answers to the following questions:

1. Are you interested in the van and zines together or separate?

2. What is your vision for how you’d like to caretake/utilize/curate or otherwise use the zine mobile and/or the zine library? Please include whether you see the zine mobile circulating locally/nationally or parked/retired as a reading room/museum, etc., and whether you envision using the zine mobile in a shared manner (among several projects/curators) or if you anticipate using it for a singular project.

* You don’t need to spell out every detail or make it lengthy; in fact, as a general guideline, aim for somewhere around 350 words or less).

After receiving replies, I’ll form a small committee with some folks who’ve been involved with the zine mobile who will discuss and decide its fate. I aim for the committee to reach this decision by mid-February.

I look forward to hearing from you!

In collaboration,

debbie (zine mobile caretaker)

#zine mobile #Fly Away Zine Mobile #zines #mobile libraries #zine libraries #call for participation

[zinemobile-blog]

Call for Participants: Madison Print & Resist!

Madison Print & Resist is a day-long festival of zines, political print media, artisanal books, grassroots journals, and experimental publications. As a part of the Wisconsin Book Festival, and with roots in the former Madison Zinefest, Print & Resist will bring together more than twenty-five dedicated and celebrated artists, writers, and collectives. They will be offering table displays of their creations, collaborative projects, and community productions in the well-trafficked, comfortable social study room on the first floor of the Helen White College Library (600 N Park St) at UW-Madison, Saturday, October 19, 2013. The event runs from 11 AM – 5 PM.

We invite book artists, poster makers, zinesters, concrete poets, letterpressers, and activist designers to apply for one of a limited number of tables we have available. You will be joining confirmed exhibitors like Xexoxial, Pioneers Press, and Just Seeds. There is neither a table fee nor an application fee. We ask for a tiny 5% commission on any sales you may conduct at the event, and all the proceeds go toward future event costs.

Please send us a description of your books, your zines, your prints, your stickers, or what have you. What are they about? How are they made? Do you have a philosophy or purpose? Are you handling other people’s work? Some pics would be nice, too, but are not required.

Tables are shareable, so pair up with a friend if you don’t have enough stuff to fill a 4×6 table by yourself. If you have an idea for a demonstration or skills-based workshop, please let us know, we have tables for that as well. If you would be coming from out of town, we have no travel funds available but can help with finding free lodging for you.

Deadline for application is midnight on Sunday, September 15. We will get back to you by the end of Friday, September 20.

Applications or questions may be submitted by email to [email protected]

For more info see http://madisonprintandresist.wordpress.com/

#zine fests #Madison #Wisconsin #calls for participation #Madison Print & Resist

[zinemobile-blog]

POC Zine Project presents a massive list of zines, plus info on where you can get them and so much more. Zines for days!

#zines #poc zines #poc zine project #zines by people of color

[zinemobile-blog]

Hey Followers,

After many years of writing a zine, buying zines, trading zines and observing zine culture I have decided to start a zine distro! Recently I was browsing distros all over the internet looking for zines pertaining to Women of Color and found that we are seriously under represented...

[zinemobile-blog]

what will be the future of the fly away zine mobile?

dear zine mobile community-- After two years and 30,000 miles driving (in spurts) across North America, my time operating the fly away zine mobile has reached the end. It's been an honor to connect with so many amazing libraries, archives, independent bookstores, and other community spaces and to meet so many people passionate about libraries, zines/print culture, self-publishing, and ensuring free access to information and perspectives not easily findable in the everyday. THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN!! If you have ideas about what the future of the zine mobile might look like -- whether it keeps circulating under new care and guidance (and you or someone you know is interested in doing this), is permanently parked/archived, is dismantled and donated elsewhere, or something else entirely, please get in touch -- zinemobile(at)gmail(dot)com! love, thanks-- debbie (fly away zinemobile caretaker)

#fly away zine mobile #zine mobile #zine mobiles #traveling library #bookmobiles #zinemobiles

[zinemobile-blog]

zine of the day--Rad Dad!

#parenting zines #zine #zines #zine of the day #zine mobile

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zine of the day--

#zine #zines #sex zines #self-sex zines #zine of the day #zine mobile #healing zines #wellness zines #sex toys #DIY zines

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zine of the day—Navigating the Space between Brilliance and Madness: A reader & roadmap of bipolar worlds

#zine #zines #zine of the day #zine library #zine mobile #Fly Away Zine Mobile #healing zines #wellness zines #zines about healing/wellness

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zine of the day—Life in the Bike Lane / breaking my automobile addiction

#zine #zines #zine of the day #bike zines #automobile zines #biking zines

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zine of the day--Women of Color #3 (Potpourri) / how to live in the city of roses and avoid the pricks

#zine #zines #zine of the day #Women of Color zine #Portland #Oregon #zine mobile #zine library

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zine of the day--The Wandering of Humanity (1975)

#zine #zines #zine of the day #zinemobile #zine libraries

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zine of the day--

#zine #zines #zine of the day #healing zines #wellness zines #zines about healing and wellness

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We could write volumes about our love for libraries — and, well, we kind of have. During our Internet travels, we've stumbled across some pretty amazing places for book lovers. After spotting an es...

#libraries #library #library love #amazing libraries

[zinemobile-blog]

zine of the day--

#zine #zines #zine mobile #zine of the day #healing/wellness zines #zine library

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it's cat day in the fly away zine mobile!

#cats #zines #cats and zines #animal friends #zine mobile #zine library