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By Nadia Pai
2021
Antifragile Zine is a magazine for visual and written submissions, founded by Miumi Shipon and Macey Keung.
recalls Miumi Shipon, a sixteen year old Japanese-American artist living in Berkeley. She sits in her bedroom, walls covered in original paintings, drawings, and prints of feminist and riot grrrl imagery. Shipon is the founder of Antifragile Zine, a print and online space for poetry, drawings, music, and art in general. The zine has been active for about a year; in that time, it has released two issues full of impactful art from various artists, and has also gained a large following and staff. Antifragile has additionally set itself apart from similar zines and publications by only publishing work produced by women and nonbinary people of color. Miumi started Antifragile Zine in the summer of 2020, right in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea came to her after getting out of an abusive relationship; as part of her recovery, she aimed to take back her voice and identity that she felt had been stripped by her abuser. In doing so, she decided to extend the opportunity to others like her. Shipon began by posting some of her ideas to her personal Instagram account, where several people responded positively. In particular, one of her followers and a schoolmate, Macey Keung, was very excited about the idea of an art-zine-slash-artist-collective. Miumi recounts her first online interactions with Macey, laughing as she says, “she had just gotten out of the shower and she was in her bath towel, and just like, DMing me completely, like, just soaked, and she asked me, like, ‘can you get on a Zoom call right now?’ because she was super excited about it and I was like, ‘can you give me an hour or so?’” The two immediately hit it off, and also made a great team -- Macey was the editor-in-chief of
their school yearbook and had plenty of experience with management, leaving the art and design direction up to Miumi. “It was a super spontaneous thing,” says Miumi. “We had never really worked together before and it was all kind of just chance.” From the very beginning, Keung and Shipon had a strong sense of the mission, values, and goals for the zine. In their first Zoom meeting, the two created a document filled with ideas, and Shipon wrote a manifesto, which served as the basis of the zine.
Antifragile is not only a showcase for art, but was created as a safe space for artists and creatives, particularly creatives of color. “It is a place where people can fully be themselves without having to be put inside of a box, and they can tell their stories kind of unfiltered without any pretense of making anybody else feel comfortable. It’s like an area where you’re allowed to be unapologetically angry or upset, or celebrate unapologetic joy,” explains Shipon. The zine is dedicated to pushing boundaries, unfiltered storytelling, and generally providing what mainstream media does not. Antifragile is especially unique in that its submissions and staff applications are open only to women and nonbinary people of color. In doing this, the magazine’s work features the perspectives and experiences that are not commonly shown in the mainstream media. This is incredibly important — more so than most realize. In a world centered on whiteness and white stories, the representation of minorities in the media has become increasingly significant. The way groups of people are portrayed in books, television shows, and other forms of entertainment tend to shape how one views those people in real life.
For example, the Perception Institute, a group dedicated to mind research on identity, states that “Black men and boys are systematically portrayed negatively in both news and entertainment programming. Many media images of black men are linked to criminality or poverty, and positive depictions are often limited to sports and music” (Representation: Culture and Perception). In turn, this greatly reduces the capabilities of Black men, and leads to perceptions of violence and crime, which has real-world implications, like police brutality. Antifragile, however, shines a spotlight on Black voices and uplifts them. This is likely one of
Miumi and Macey sharing a cake
the reasons they’ve gained such a large following -- according to the Arab Film Institute, a 2016 diversity report conducted by UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies found that “increasingly diverse audiences prefer diverse film and television content” (What Exactly is Media Representation Anyway?). Gen Z has been found to be one of the most diverse generations in history, and this incredibly variegated audience wants to see themselves represented. Though film and television has begun to make changes, stories are still very much centered around white and male perspectives, and the industry has a long way to go. Antifragile, though, has stuck by their mission, and has gained much support in doing so.
In the year since founding the zine, Miumi (along with Macey), has accomplished a lot, from getting a member of their staff hired at a large company, to designing and releasing Antifragile merchandise, but what lies ahead? In the future, Shipon hopes to organize meet-ups at different venues in the Bay Area. She envisions an event where artists can showcase and sell their works, and where musicians and poets can perform. “We really do also want this to be not just an abstract concept, but a tangible place for people to share their work and to possibly gain opportunities,” says Shipon. And that’s not all -- currently Miumi and her team are hard at work on issue three of the zine, the theme of which is “spoiled milk.” The issue will explore themes of shame, internalization, the feelings of cleanliness and being dirty, and growth. Ultimately, Miumi and Macey’s goal is to make Antifragile “as big as possible.” The magazine and online space provides a place that creatives and people of color can feel truly safe and be authentically themselves. Miumi aims to spread that space as far and wide as she possibly can, and to uplift artists and marginalized people using the zine.
About the Author Nadia Pai is a student at Freestyle Academy. She enjoys drawing, espcially drawing people in her style. Other interests include listening to music, spending time with her three dogs, and eating chocolate!
