Riverside City College’s Art Club collaborated with the Fine and Performing Arts Engagement Center on May 19 to host its second zine workshop, with plans to make this an annual event.
The event highlighted the importance of physical media and tuning into your creativity. They aimed to expose students to communities they may be unfamiliar with, encouraging them to put themselves out there and achieve something with their art.
Art club vice president, Shannon Soto led the workshop and introduced participants to the zine culture.
“This was something I was already passionate about and it proved to be very successful,” she said.
Physical media is scarce in this digital age, but at this event participants saw nothing but resources to create tactical art that tells a story.
“It’s almost like a precursor to the internet,” Soto said.
According to The Bindery, “A zine is a self-published, non-commercial print-work that is typically produced in small, limited batches.”
Marginalized communities like skating groups, riot grrrl feminist groups and the LGBTQ+ community were well-known in the zine culture. When there was no platform made for them, these subcultures and activists utilized zines to express their take on various topics such as politics, music and fashion.
Many of the zines contained in-depth overviews of people within these groups, highlighting the history of communities youth now are involved in. Zines are a primary source to see the resistance and growth these communities had to get through to get here.
“It was a community-bound [physical media source] in an era before people could communicate online,” Soto said.
The riot grrrl scene of the 1990s showcased true rebellion and the start of a revolution in a time when women felt undermined in a male dominated world, especially within the music industry.
“This society doesn’t want us girls to feel happy or powerful in any way,” ‘Bikini Kill’ member Kathleen Hanna states in the first 1990 published zine.
Although ‘Bikini Kill’ only released two issues, this played a crucial role in the advancement of feminism at the time. The zines not only showcased music lyrics of the band but public service announcements on how to protect yourself against male predators and how to play a role in the feminist revolution.
According to the Library of Virginia, “the scene relied heavily on zines to disperse information regarding music groups, venues and events as they rejected corporate labels and more mainstream publications.”
“It’s interesting to take a step back and look at how people were able to speak their minds,” Soto said.
Nicholas Macias, a student of punk culture, was inspired by the workshop because of the history of Slash magazine.
‘Sonic Youth’ and ‘Black Flag’ were featured in his handmade zine titled “Best Bands of All Time.”
“It’s an outlet for me to share things that I really love,” he said.
You can get blindsided by the realities of life, work or school especially when your major is your passion. But it is important to create just for yourself. That is what the workshop did for students, it helped change their perspective and recharge their creativity.
“I feel like day-to-day life can really limit you creatively. Doing something that you love can really bring that out of you,” Macias said.
“The practice of art can be looked at through a psychological perspective because you know what an artist was going through when they created that,” said Danya Ayda, a student majoring in psychology who attended the workshop.
Creating art has been proven to improve mental health. Stimulating your brain creatively can increase serotonin levels in those struggling with anxiety, depression and mood disorders. Students can benefit from this form of therapy when facing hardships in their school or home life.
Kevin Rivera, a student majoring in art, returned to the workshop and created a zine titled “Workin Fish”. The zine showcased various scandalous fish in fishnets.
“It’s nice to have that escape when you can do something as silly as doodling and eventually it turns meditative,” Rivera said.
