CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — An upcoming festival will celebrate small press publications and self-published authors and showcase do-it-yourself media. The Small Press Fest, sponsored by the University Library, will highlight zines, comics, small presses, and short-run and self-published material while encouraging authorship in various forms.
“I hope people become more aware of self-published work. It can be anything from a gorgeous arts book to a photocopied booklet about a topic typically absent from mainstream media,” said Sarah Christensen, a visual resources and outreach specialist for the University Library. She is organizing the festival with support from librarians at the Ricker Library of Architecture and Art; the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library; University Laboratory High School; and the School of Information Sciences.
She hopes the festival will develop a community of zine makers (small circulation, self-published works), comics artists and other self-published authors in the area.
“Anyone can be an author and write about anything they want,” Christensen said.
Artist and zine maker Devin Morris is a special guest at the Small Press Fest. Morris publishes 3 Dot Zine, an annual publication for artists to share the concerns of marginalized communities.
The event is April 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Independent Media Center, 202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana. It will feature a panel discussion at 11 a.m. with three artists, scholars and zine makers. Devin Morris is a Brooklyn-based artist who publishes 3 Dot Zine, an annual publication for artists to share the concerns of marginalized communities. He also hosts a Brown Paper Zine and Small Press Fair for black artists and artists of color to showcase their work. Morris creates mixed media paintings, photographs and collage, as well as writing and video. His visit to the festival is co-sponsored by the School of Art and Design.
Mimi Thi Nguyen is a longtime maker of zines, including “Slander” and “Race Riot,” and a professor of gender and women’s studies and Asian American studies. Mugiko Nishikawa is the host of a Japanese-language radio show broadcast from Urbana, a producer of the Grassroots Media Zine, a professor of cultural anthropology at Konan University in Japan and a visiting scholar at the U. of I.’s Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies. Their conversation will be moderated by Kathryn LaBarre, a professor of library and information science and the zine librarian at the Independent Media Center.
Anthony Rayson – an activist who makes, collects and sends zines to prisons and who was called the “Anarchist Grandpa” in a Chicago Magazine profile – will give a talk from 10:30 to 11 a.m. with Rachel Rasmussen, the volunteer coordinator for the Urbana Champaign Books to Prisoners project.
Brook Elam, a Champaign artist who makes pop comic art paintings, is one of the artists exhibiting work at the Small Press Fest.
The event will also feature lightning talks from artists, both local and from Chicago, including Rayson; Jodee Stanley, a professor in Illinois’ Creative Writing Program and the editor of the literary/arts publication The Ninth Letter; and student authors from Q Magazine, which showcases the environmental writing of U. of I. students.
Several events beginning April 8 lead up to the Small Press Fest.
The Ricker Library will host an Artist Book and Zine Collection Showcase on April 8 from 2-5 p.m. Shoshana Vegh-Gaynor and Stacia McKeever will provide an introduction and discussion of the artists’ books and zines in the library’s collection. The materials will be available for visitors to browse.
A tour at the Undergraduate Library on April 10 at 2 p.m. will explore the library’s collection of graphic novels and comics from around the world. The tour will be led by David Ward, the head of the Undergraduate Library who has helped build the graphic novel collection, and Mara Thacker, the South Asian studies and global popular culture librarian who has built one of the largest collections of South Asian comics in a North American research library.
University Laboratory High School will screen “Handmade Nation” – a 2009 documentary on DIY art, craft and design – April 11 at 7:30 p.m. Zine-making materials will be available for people to use during and after the film. The screening is open to the public but seating is limited.
Christensen hopes to organize other events throughout the year following the Small Press Fest, including a poetry workshop with the CU Poetry Group and events to create zines, chapbooks and other DIY publications.
“I hope people are empowered to create their own work if they so choose,” Christensen said. “It really is something anyone can do. You don’t have to have a publishing house behind you to have your voice heard.”
Editor’s note: To contact Sarah Christensen, email schrstn@illinois.edu.
