Writing & Rhetoric MKE
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Social Justice
    • Antiracist Literature
    • Taking Action
  • Submit
  • #4C20
    • Welcome
    • Accessibility
    • Land/Water Acknowledgement
    • Lodging & Transportation
    • Local CCCC Events
    • VisitingMKE >
      • Museums & Tours
      • Outdoor Activities
      • Recovery Groups
      • Restaurant Guide
      • Social Spaces
  • Contact

BLOG

Milwaukee Zine Festival

12/5/2018

0 Comments

 
​This semester we’ve been reading and discussing opportunities for writers to engage in codemeshing and multivocal play within academic spaces. Some of the walls we always bump into are those of assessment and of precedent – should we encourage students to write in forms that utilize multiple languages and modal varieties when we know there are tests and standards that will not allow these forms?
 
One suggested solution has been to gradually replace those in power with writers who are aware of the privileges and boundaries that a future of Standard English creates, who will not only encourage but celebrate meshing languages and modes. So how do we build an affinity for those voices in curriculums predicated on assessment? The answer may be outside the academic system, in alternative writing and publishing communities like those of zines.
 
In his essay “The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued,” A. Suresh Canagarajah describes “contact zone textualities” (601) as texts that mesh not only multiple languages, but also multiple modes of communication. He cites Walter Mignolo’s definition of “grapho-centric” texts that are only words, with no visual components, and describes how this division of image and text in Western communities enables biases against codemeshing multiple languages (600). Zines are a vibrant engagement with “contact zone textualities,” embracing a meshing of languages, images, and even physical forms.
 
“Zine” is short for “magazine,” and is an independently-produced piece of writing. There are no editors, copyeditors, or gateways. Zinesters write personal stories (perzines), fiction, reviews of books and bands, lists of things they like, catalogues of dog poop they pass by on the sidewalk – the scope is endless. While most zines are independent projects and are shared via snail mail, zine festivals are opportunities for zinesters to share their work and meet people from the community. 
Picture
My Buttons for Milwaukee Zine Fest 2018
​The Milwaukee Zine Festival celebrated its 10th year in April 2018. Held at the downtown public library, this free event featured over 60 zinesters sharing their work. I was lucky to snag a table to share some of the zines I’ve made over the years, and had a great time hanging out with other zine makers and buying/trading zines to take home to add to my collection. 
Picture
Zines from Milwaukee Zine Fest 2018
​The Milwaukee Zine Fest also had workshops on producing zines and screenprinting. Bay View Printing Company let attendees use a letterpresss to print their own zine fest poster to take home, the Milwaukee Public Library’s rare books librarian, Maria Burke, taught a workshop on bookbinding techniques, and Max Yela, head of UWM’s Special Collections led a workshop on methods for folding zines to create mini-books.
 
In explaining why zines are an important genre for writing, the Milwaukee Zine Festival’s website highlights both openness to content and accessibility of production, and argues: “Zines thus provide a safe, independent platform of expression for underrepresented and marginalized voices: people of color, young people, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ(+) community, persecuted religious groups, and people with limited economic resources” (“What Is a Zine?”). 
 
Rebecca Lorimer Leonard, in her essay “Multilingual Writing as Rhetorical Attunement,” calls for a new way of viewing writing. She urges us to consider how “the conditions that foster rhetorical attunement are those in which multiplicity is a norm and difference is inevitable” (240). At the Milwaukee Zine Fest, year after year, multiplicity is the norm and differences are celebrated – stories detailing raccoon encounters are tabled next to artwork celebrating body size and tattoos, Professors and Punks blend in together, zinesters walk from table to table sharing candy and buttons. If I could bring the writing administrators of the future to only one place, I would take them here, to show them how writing in multiple languages and forms can flourish. 
Picture
Zines from Milwaukee Zine Fest 2017
The next Milwaukee Zine Fest is April 6, 2019. Check out their Facebook event page for more information and to get involved! 

                                                                                                                    <3 Jenni Moody
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Activism
    African American Rhetoric
    Antiracism
    Archival Research
    Art
    Asian American
    Basic Writing
    Borderlands
    Bronzeville
    Campus Event
    CCCC
    Chicanx
    Code Meshing
    Code Switching
    Community Engagement
    Community Literacies
    Composition Pedagogy
    Creative Writing
    #CSPJustice
    Cultural Rhetorics
    Decolonization
    Digital Humanities
    Disability Studies
    Diversity Rhetoric
    East Side
    #EatingMKE
    Englishes
    Ethics
    Feminism
    Field Notes
    From The Editors
    FYC
    Historic MKE
    Hostile Terrains
    Immigration
    Indigenous Rhetoric
    Labor Issues
    Language Policies
    Latinx
    LGBTQ+
    LGBTQ+ Archival Research
    Lindsay Heights
    Linguistic Diversity
    Literacy Narratives
    #LoveIsRhetorical
    Milwaukee Film Festival
    MKE Neighborhoods
    Multimodal
    Public Writing
    Qualitative Research
    Queer Archives
    Race
    Resistance
    Restorative Literacies
    Rhetorical History
    Rhetorical Listening
    Riverwest
    Shorewood
    Social Justice
    Teaching
    Translation
    Translingual
    UWM
    Virginia Burke Awards
    WAC
    Walker's Point
    Writing Center
    Writing Programs

    Archives

    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Social Justice
    • Antiracist Literature
    • Taking Action
  • Submit
  • #4C20
    • Welcome
    • Accessibility
    • Land/Water Acknowledgement
    • Lodging & Transportation
    • Local CCCC Events
    • VisitingMKE >
      • Museums & Tours
      • Outdoor Activities
      • Recovery Groups
      • Restaurant Guide
      • Social Spaces
  • Contact