Creativity, scholarship will be on display for Paper Plains Zine Fest


LAWRENCE – The Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity at the University of Kansas is partnering with multiple local organizations to host an event that allows attendees to explore written works meant to inform, inspire and instruct.

The Paper Plains Zine Fest will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 3 at Van Go, 715 New Jersey St. 

Paper Plains Zine Fest PosterA zine is a short, self-published booklet. As described by the Paper Plains Zine Fest website, zines have long been a favored medium of creative expression as well as a means of accessing power and agency for artists working outside mainstream culture, either due to systemic oppression or by choice. Zines inform, inspire and instruct, exploring a diversity of topics and genres, including art, design, illustration, poetry, personal narratives, politics and subcultures.

At the Paper Plains Zine Fest, participants will exhibit, sell and trade their independently published zines, pamphlets, comics, books and other works. According to organizers, the zine fest will host over 80 local and regional artists, including those who are Black, Indigenous or people of color, woman/femme and LGBTQIA+ as well as zinesters with disabilities.

The free public event will feature programs such as a mini zine-making workshop for children hosted by the Lawrence Public Library, a panel on self-publishing and a roundtable discussion with KU instructors who use zines in their classrooms. The Emily Taylor Center will release “Queer Futures,” a zine collaboration with KU’s Center for Sexuality & Gender Diversity, and host a discussion with its contributors. The day will also feature a keynote from Imani Wadud, KU doctoral student in American studies.

Programming will take place indoors, where masks will be required.

Planning committee member Megan Williams, assistant director of the Emily Taylor Center, said making zines is a way of practicing feminism and creating community.

“I am thrilled to partner with Wonder Fair and Van Go to feature the work of local zinesters and KU scholars while building a diverse zine community in Lawrence,” Williams said.

Paper Plains Zine Fest, originally planned for April 2020 in conjunction with Lawrence's Paper Plains Literary Festival, is sponsored by Wonder Fair, the KU Emily Taylor Center and Van Go. 

Mon, 08/22/2022

author

Megan Williams

Media Contacts

Megan Williams

Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity

785-864-3552