(Poster by Deth P. Son)
The fourth annual Brooklyn Zine Fest is happening this weekend (Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26) and we’re getting super excited to check out what more than 150 zine crafters will be hawking at the Brooklyn Historical Society as well as a brand new panel series which looks to be interesting and varied, just how we like our zines.
There are tons and tons of zines to soak up, so if you want to be a real hardcore dork about meeting everyone and seeing absolutely everything, then you gotta go both days because those 150 zinesters are split up between Saturday and Sunday.
We’ve got some local homies representing at the fest too– check out The East Village Inky, Stranger Than Bushwick (created by the guy who made the “gentrify white” crayon), and the Lower East Side Librarian. Look out for queer zines and zines dedicated to Brooklyn street art, as well as one small press dedicated to police brutality and other abuses by authorities (Research and Destroy). Check out the full list of exhibitors over here.
Two panels will be held on Saturday, one serious and one maybe not so serious.
First up at 1 pm is a panel discussion of food zines. Do you think Food Writing these days is only about breaking the next Cronut or how best to sneak zucchini into the digestive tracts of monster offspring? Well, no, actually think again, buster, because there are people out there writing intelligent, interesting zines about food that go well beyond these well-worn tropes brought to us by food critics and Mormon mommy bloggers everywhere.
Maude Pryor (creator of Marmalade Umlaut , who admits on her blog that a few of the earlier issues of her vegan food zine that’s been ongoing since 2007 are dominated by “weird drunk stuff” produced during a saucier time in her life) hosts this panel that promises to smash food writing assumptions. Contributors include, among others, Bill Roundy of Bar Scrawl (a cool NYC bar blog with reviews as cartoon representations) and Mitchell Kugal, creator of SALT (a bi-annual beautifully designed newspaper about chefs and the industry).
A second panel (happening at 3 pm) is dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement and how zines have responded to as well as fueled recent activism. It looks like this is sort of a last minute effort and the result of demands by attendees and exhibitors, because the event organizers are still looking for panel participants to speak to Black Lives Matter activism as well as issues of visibility for people of color in the zine world. If you’re interested in participating or know anyone who might be, the organizers are asking you to contact them.
Update: The organizers announced that the Black Lives Matter panel has been finalized. Ajuan Mance– of 8RockPress and 1001 Black Men, a series of drawings depicting black men Mance sees every day in Oakland and from memories of growing up on the East Coast– will moderate the panel which includes three speakers: Nicole Taylor, editor of The Modern Traveler’s Green Zine (a food and travel guide), Eric Orr of Rappin’ Max Robot (the “first ever, independent published Hip Hop comic book” created in 1986), and Simone Bailey, a Black Lives Matter activist.
Day 1 of the 4th annual Brooklyn Zine Fest runs from 11 am to 6 pm, Saturday April 25th at the Brooklyn Historical Society and continues for Day 2 from 11 am to 6 pm on Sunday April 26th.