Zineophlia Leeds

 Zineophilia Leeds

I was in Hyde Park Book Club last night and came across a zine making workshop, called Zineophilia. It runs every three weeks and is a space where anybody can make a zine for free (all of the materials and tools are provided). I got speaking to the guy who runs the workshop, Nick Gonzo, and it turns out hes a massive zine nerd and even teaches zine history at universities. It would be super interesting to carry out some primary research, and ask Nick about his perspective on feminist zines and their political power. I was also thinking that I could come to one of the workshops and ask people there, or possibly run something similar for my physical outcome/ response? 

Questions to ask Nick

• Do you think zines are inherently political objects? 
  
• How did zines play a role within first wave feminism and how has the function of zines within feminism changed from this? 
  
• It’s indisputable that the zine culture helps bring like minded people together and forms a sense of community. Despite this, do you think that this hinders the political power of zines, as they are mainly distributed in a sort of ‘echo chamber’ format? 
  
• How do you think zines are adapting to changes in our society in regards to social media etc? I know it’s cliche to ask if print is dead (I don’t believe it is) so what do you think the role of the zine will be in the future? 
  
• There’s a lot of debate around the representation of all women within the contemporary zine community and feminist zines in particular; it is a common trope that many feminist zines are created by and for white middle class women predominantly. Do you think that there could be more diversity within the zine community, and that more voices could be heard? 
  
• How do you think zines function as a means to diversify society? In today’s political climate, do you believe that zines today possess as much political power as zines in the past? 
  
• I absolutely love the idea of zineophilia, as I think the concept of bringing people together to make zines is super exciting. What have your experiences been like running the workshop so far? Is there a lot of variation with what people create? Also, what do you think is so special about the process of creating a zine? 
  
• I haven’t really dabbled much in the world of zines, so have you got any recommendations for zine fairs/ zine events that would be good to try out? 
  
• I apologise for my very lengthy questions, but I have one last thing to ask; what are your favourite zines at the moment? If you have any favourite feminist zines in particular that would be great!