Paper Plains Zine Fest returns with creative workshops, fair and more

LAWRENCE — Paper Plains Zine Fest, a two-day event celebrating and showcasing zine culture in Lawrence and beyond, returns for a second year at multiple venues over Labor Day weekend.

The Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity at the University of Kansas will partner with multiple local organizations Sept. 2-3 to celebrate the zine — a self-published creation, usually reproduced by photocopier and circulated as a physical medium.

“We’re so excited for the return of Paper Plains Zine Fest,” said planning committee member Megan Williams, assistant director of the Emily Taylor Center. “The success of last year’s event inspired us to expand our programming to a second day, allowing us to look deeper into the impact of zines in our community as well as to grow partnerships with organizations and institutions across KU and Lawrence that support our burgeoning zine culture.”

Sept. 2

The first day of the festival will include programming, panels and workshops at KU, some of which require advance registration on the Paper Plains Zine Fest website. Imani Wadud, KU doctoral student in American studies, will give a keynote address about zine-making as a solidarity practice with a focus on decolonial and Black feminist thought at 4 p.m. at the Spencer Museum of Art.

The day’s programming will conclude with a 7 p.m. screening of “Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution” (2017) at the Lawrence Arts Center, hosted in partnership with Lawrence Arts Center Microcinema, KU Libraries and Trans Lawrence Coalition. The documentary traces the cultural phenomenon known as Queercore and the place of zines within this LGBTQ punk movement. The screening is recommended for ages 18-plus and will be followed by a panel of queer and trans zinesters moderated by Zine Fest co-organizer and KU undergraduate Monty Protest.

Sept. 3

The second day of the festival will feature the Vendor Fair from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Van Go, 715 New Jersey St., featuring over 100 local and regional artists, including Black, Indigenous, people of color, woman/femme, LGBTQIA+ and youth zine-makers as well as zinesters with disabilities. These vendors from around the Midwest and beyond will have zines, comics, chapbooks, pamphlets and more to sell and trade. Also planned is a youth zine-making workshop hosted by Jenny Cook, children’s librarian at Lawrence Public Library, and Williams at 11:30 a.m. at Van Go. 

Paper Plains Zine Fest is sponsored by Wonder Fair, Emily Taylor Center and Van Go and made possible with a grant from the City of Lawrence.