Glasgow Zine Festival Programme 2021

Glasgow Zine Fest

What is GZF?

(GZF) is brought to you by the team at Glasgow Zine Library. It is an annual festival that celebrates selfpublishing and Do It Yourself (DIY) ethos. GZF is a yearly opportunity to come, see, make, share, and do. Spanning the full month of April 2021, this year’s festival is host to an online zine fair of over 60 makers, in addition to workshops, talks, performances, and readings.

Welcome

Ticketing

Accessibility

Symbols guide

Ifyou'reviewingin desktop any blue, underlined text is hyperlinked!

Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley: Artist Talk

I Hear You Here: A Poetry Comics Workshop

Introduction to the Bent Bars Project

Make a Felt Protest Banner!

Tape Letters: Exploring British-Pakistani Migration

Makings of Makings: zine-making workshop

Technologies of Storytelling: Writing Workshop

A World Without Prisons

Make a zine with the YPP

Art and Music combined

Artist Talk with Grace Wilson

DIY Decolonial Publishing with Decolonise Fest

Connecting the Spectrum

Finding Your Place: Writing Workshop

U Belong Glasgow: Remote

Bent Bars Project: Letter Writing Workshop

Game Night: Zine Fest Special!

FEARY: A Theory Reading Group – Zine Fest Special!

Ground in Sound with B.O.S.S. An

How do we keep hold of the intimate, hand-made, smallscale medium of zines within the online world in which we find ourselves? How can we reach our community and stay true to the principles of appropriate technology: ways of living that are peopledriven, low-impact, and sustainable? In a world where we are funneled through technology that has become our lives, who gets to speak, and how?

This year, our online events programme invites you to dig deep into different technologies of connection; spoken letters on cassette tape, protest banners, storytelling and strategies for social change to name some. We are joined by Decolonise Fest, a butch archive, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Black Obsidian Sound System, Seleena Laverne Daye and Patchwork Archivists among many other inspirational artists, makers and facilitators.

The programme also sees something new: our youth programme devised by a committed group of Glasgowbased young producers aged 14-18, led by Aylson Stewart, who bring an artist talk and two creative workshops to the programme – by young people, for young people.

Our digital zine fair platforms over 60 makers who have printed, stapled and bound their thoughts, desires, observations, and obsessions. Visit our website to peruse their ‘tables’ and virtually thumb through some new additions for your collection, or you can pay-a-zine-forward to the Books Beyond Bars project.

Pay-What-You-Can pay £0–12 for all events.

Please be honest with yourself and your financial situation. If you purchase a ticket at the lowest end of the scale when you could afford the higher ticket prices, it makes it harder for us to provide financial flexibility to those who need it.

If you have booked a ticket and can no longer attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your space to others who wish to attend.

£0–2

£4–6

£8–12

I am unable to meet my basic needs*; I am receiving ESA/JSA/UC/DLA/PIP, or working tax credits, am unemployed or on low income. I use foodbanks. I have no or limited expendable income** and walk because I can’t afford public transport. I rarely buy new items because I am unable to afford them. I don’t have holidays.

I am employed but stress about meeting my basic needs, although I still achieve them. I may have some debt but it does not stop me meeting my basic needs. I can afford public transport and taxis. If I have a car/access to a car I can afford petrol. I have acess to financial savings or some expendable income. I shop new and second-hand.

I am comfortably able to meet all of my basic needs, have savings and an expendable income. I may have some debt but it doesn’t stop me meeting basic needs. I own my home or property or I rent a higher-end property. I can afford public and private transport. If I have a car/ access to a car I can afford petrol.

*BASIC NEEDS – include food, housing, clothing and transportation.

**EXPENDABLE INCOME – might mean you are able to buy coffee or tea at a shop, go to the cinema or a concert, buy new clothes, books and similar items each month, etc.

Please see individual event descriptions for information on the access arrangements that are in place. These include BSL interpretation, live closed captioning, automated closed captioning via Otter.ai and audio description.

All additional access requests can be made via Eventbrite while booking or you can contact glasgowzinelibrary@gmail.com .

We will do our best to meet any and all requests. We are more able to meet requests made at least two weeks in advance. We may be in touch with you directly to discuss certain requirements.

Participants will be informed in advance if events are being recorded for access reasons.

For events that are closed for a certain group, we aim to find an access worker who shares this identity/experience. However, if this is not possible we will inform all participants beforehand.

Text-only and audio versions of the GZF21 programme are available on our website.

Content notes are included in event descriptions for guidance regarding potentially distressing subject matter.

glasgowzinelibrary@gmail.com if you have any questions or feedback about accessibility at our events.

Look out for these symbols in the event descriptions to give you an idea of what to expect if you attend:

Small group discussions in breakout rooms

Whole group discussions

Hands-on activities

Reading

Writing

Sharing work that has been created

Visual presentations including film clips

Sound/music

Danielle BrathwaiteShirley: Artist Talk

Thursday 1st, 7–8pm

Ages 16+

Digital artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley kicks off the festival with an interactive roleplaying talk on how to build autonomous archives that centre a particular community and protect them from erasure. She will give a short talk followed by a discussion. Participants’ choices will influence the direction of the talk and the discussions you will have.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is an artist working predominantly in digital media to communicate the experiences of being a Black Trans person. Their practice focuses on recording the lives of Black Trans people, intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell Trans stories.

This event will have live captions, BSL & audio description

I

Hear You Here:

A

Poetry Comics Workshop Sunday 4th, 11:30am–1pm Ages 14+

In this workshop you'll be invited to use your own memories as inspiration for creating experimental poetry comics, as well as receiving a brief introduction into the history of the form. Everyone from professional illustrators to those drawing for the first time are welcome. This workshop is about experimentation and learning to find inspiration from anywhere! Participants will be invited to read aloud and share work but there will be no expectation to do this.

Peony Gent is an illustrator, poet, and installation artist based between London and East Anglia. She has just come to the end of her 2020 residency with the House of Illustration as their Illustrator in Residence.

This event will have automated captions

Introduction to the Bent Bars Project

Monday 5th, 6:30–8pm Ages 18+ 14

Please note: This event is open to all, but only LGBTQIA+ people can sign up to be pen pals through the Bent Bars Project

The Bent Bars Project is a letter-writing project for LGBTQIA+ prisoners in Britain. Bent Bars aims to work in solidarity with prisoners by organising pen-pal matches, sharing resources, providing mutual support and drawing public attention to the struggles of queer and trans people behind bars.

In this introductory talk, we’ll give some background to the project and the importance of letter writing as a form of solidarity, as well as answering some frequently asked questions about writing letters. You’ll then be invited to sign up as a penpal, and attend a workshop later in the festival where we’ll talk you through writing your first letter. If you would like to attend the letter writing workshop on April 24, you will need to have attended this talk.

Content warning: Incarceration of queer people

This event will have live captions & BSL

Make a Felt Protest Banner!

Saturday 10th, 12:30–2pm

Ages 14+

Sew a felt banner. Fists up, choose your weapon, join artist Seleena Laverne Daye in making a mini wall hanging banner from felt, featuring a pride fist holding the thing that brings you joy. Seleena will guide you in how to make the banner, give you hints and tips whilst chatting all things protest banners to what brings us joy. This workshop may include discussion of protest and oppression of marginalised groups. Suitable for first-time and experienced stitchers alike!

Seleena Laverne Daye is a self taught textile artist, workshop facilitator and zine maker. Loves to make things about race, class, sexuality and fandom. Seleena can often be found eating crisps and tap dancing.

Content warning: possible talk about protest and oppression of marginalised groups

This event will have automated captions

Tape Letters: Exploring BritishPakistani Migration Through Oral History

Saturday 10th, 4–5:30pm Ages 14+

In this talk, artist Wajid Yaseen will discuss his Tape Letters oral history project, examining the use of cassette tapes as an alternative mode of long-distance communication by Pakistani and British-Pakistani families between 1960–1980. Drawing directly from first-hand interviews and the informal, intimate conversations on the cassettes themselves, the project aims to shed light on this unorthodox method of communication. Wajid will give focus to themes of migration, identity, language, loneliness, long-distance romance, parenthood and the unusual use of cassette tape technology.

Wajid Yaseen is a Manchester-born, Londonbased artist whose work draws on an interdisciplinary approach to develop soundbased works. He is the director of the sound art research cooperative Modus Arts, the co-founder of the destructivist Scrapclub project, and director of the Ear Cinema project.

This event will have live captions & BSL

Makings of Makings: A collective zine-making workshop on making

Sunday 11th, 11:30am–1:30pm Ages 18+

An experimental, collaborative zine-making workshop about processes of making, beyond the realms of practical possibility. In this zine workshop with Cade & MacAskill, you are invited to delve into the nuts and bolts of making processes, both real and imagined, and create a collective zine or hybrid instruction manual that foregrounds and splices processes of creation. Drawing inspiration from recipe books, how-to videos, instructions and diagrams, this fun collaborative workshop will be a chance to work instinctively and responsively with the group, moving beyond the realms of practical possibility to discover the creative potential of our collective imagination.

Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill are renowned queer live artists based in Glasgow, creating and performing their unique works nationally and internationally in a wide range of contexts. Their work, together and individually, straddles the worlds of contemporary theatre, live art, queer cabaret, film, children’s performance, site-specific and socially engaged practices. This event will have automated captions

Technologies of Storytelling: A Creative Writing Workshop

with Patchwork Archivists

Sunday 11th, 2:30–4pm Ages 18+

Children are welcome to attendwithaparent/caregiver

A creative writing workshop inspired by Wajid Yaseen’s oral history project of messages sent on cassette tapes in the 1960s through to the 1980s by families who migrated to the UK from Pakistan between 1950 and 1970. We will create a collective poem, picking up from the time period of the Tape Letters and travelling through memories asking ourselves through what technologies are we in conversation with ancestral lands and what might we teleport to other generations? This will be a participatory workshop with a range of activities from bodywork, individual to groups reflections, creating and sharing. Please bring a pen, paper or anything else you'd like to write with.

This event is for people from the South Asian diaspora

Rooted in South Asian diaspora experiences, Patchwork Archivists exist to map our histories, plot our futures and share our present. We hold space for grassroots archiving, storytelling and co-remembering. Individually, we are Priya Jay and A’Ishah Waheed.

This event will have automated captions

A World Without Prisons

Tuesday 13th, 6:30–8pm Ages 18+

Together we will discuss the realities of the prison industrial complex in the UK, current abolitionist struggles for liberation and how we can work together to build a world without prisons and police, and instead founded in principles of radical care and transformative justice.

Cradle is a collective of abolitionist organisers and educators dedicated to building transformative justice and community accountability responses to violence in our communities.

Content warning: This event will include discussion of state violence, prisons, policing, sexual and domestic violence, racism and ableism and transphobia

This event will have automated captions

The Young Producers Programme is Ara, Alex, Alexandra, Pepper and Owasit. All of these events will have live captions & BSL

The Young Producers Programme is an initiative aimed at 14–18 year olds in and around Glasgow. It is a chance for local young people to get handson experience with event planning and empowers them to express themselves while also developing valuable organisation, teamwork and communication skills.

The group has designed these events from start to finish. They've come up with event ideas, reached out to local artists, marketed their events, and developed several accessible, youth-led, fun events.

Make a zine with the YPP Saturday 24th, 2.30–3.15pm

Zines. Small in size, big in expression. The Young Producers Programme wants to give you the chance to create your own, with helpful tips and tricks to get you set to express yourself through the medium of zines. So join us on zoom to give it a go!

Art and Music combined Thursday 15th, 4.30–5.30pm

This event will entail a range of activities from a quick fire drawing round to mark making with multiple items. The event is centered around music and will be accompanied by a Spotify playlist which will be accessible later on. A pack containing different mediums will be sent out to all participants so don’t worry about not having the necessary equipment. Whether you are young, old, experienced or not everyone is welcome so come along!

Artist Talk with Grace Wilson Saturday 17th, 3–4.15pm

Join the YPP in a live online Q&A session about being an artist in Scotland, as we interview ceramics artist Grace Wilson. Ever wonder how artists get started? Join us as we find out how Grace became an artist: from her inspiration, her art style, and her experience as a contemporary artist. Anyone interested in art or thinking about becoming an artist should come along for this inside peek at the life of an amazing artist!

DIY Decolonial Publishing with Decolonise Fest

Wednesday 14th, 6:30–7:30pm Ages 14+

Members of Decolonise Fest's editorial team and contributors to this year's zine will host a panel discussion on decolonial DIY publishing. We will discuss effective platforming, challenging cultural erasure, the possibilities DIY publishing offers in terms of resistance and decoloniality in the publishing industry at large, and more! White allies are welcome but, remember, this event will focus on people of colour.

Decolonise fest is an annual London-based, volunteer-run, non-profit DIY punk festival collectively organised by and for punx of colour. We are uncompromising, strong and active in dismantling the white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, ableism and Islamophobia that infests the punk scene.

Content warning: This talk will include discussion of racism, homophobia and mature topics This event will have live captions & BSL

Connecting the Spectrum:

Neurodiverse communities

online & offline

Saturday 17th, 3–4pm Ages 14+

Join Autistic writer and historian of Disability

Jessica Secmezsoy-Urquhart as they look at how the internet has united a global neurodiverse community for the first time and given autistic people a voice. Its ability to create an impact post-pandemic in the offline autistic and neurotypical world will be explored.

Jessica Secmezsoy-Urquhart is an autistic, disabled, working class, queer and non-binary writer from a Scottish and Turkish background who creates content for BBC The Social, writes freelance articles and has just completed their first short film, Constant Companion.

Content warning: Abuse, ableism and psychiatric hospitalisation

This event will have live captions & BSL

Finding Your Place: Writing Workshop with Hannah Lavery

Tuesday 20th, 7–8:30pm Ages 16+

Looking at poetry and other media, Hannah will encourage an exploration of place, home and belonging in short, gentle writing exercises. There will be opportunities to share but it is not compulsory and the focus is on play, experiment and creating a sense of community in our time together. No experience is required and all are welcome.

Hannah is an award winning poet, playwright and performer. The Drift, her autobiographical play toured Scotland as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Season 2019 and in 2020 she was awarded a New Playwrights' Award by the Playwrights Studio Scotland and selected by Owen Sheers’ as one of his Ten Writers Asking Questions That Will Shape Our Future for the International Literature Showcase, a project from the National Writing Centre and the British Council. This event will have automated captions

U Belong Glasgow: Remote

Wednesday 21st, 6:30–8:30pm

Ages 18+

While everyone is welcome to attend, performance slots are reserved for BPOC, LGBTQ+ and disabled creatives only. If you would like to perform get in touch with U Belong Glasgow on Instagram or Facebook.

U Belong Glasgow is a multilingual community platform that features BPOC and/or LGBT+ and/ or disabled creatives, including poets, artists, musicians, singers, photographers, comedians and more. This is a community that advocates for wellness, compassion, and solidarity, and you belong here. This month the theme is 'Remote' as in distant and isolated. References to the lockdown and Covid-19 pandemic are welcome. Reflections on the many delights of technology including Zoom and social media are encouraged too.

U Belong is run by Esraa Husain (pronouns indifferent), a non-binary creative writer, academic and translator based in Scotland.

Content warning: Each performer will give any content/trigger warnings before their performance starts

This event will have automated captions

Bent Bars Project: Letter Writing Workshop

Saturday 24th, 11:30am–1:30pm Ages 18+

Please note: This event is open to LGBTQIA+ people only

The Bent Bars Project is a letter-writing project for LGBTQIA+ prisoners in Britain. Bent Bars aims to work in solidarity with prisoners by organising pen-pal matches, sharing resources, providing mutual support and drawing public attention to the struggles of queer and trans people behind bars.

To attend this workshop, you will need to have signed up to be a penpal after attending our introductory discussion on April 5th. We'll chat about the process of writing to your penpal, and answer any questions you might have about sending your first letter. Please make sure you have something to write/type with.

This event will have automated captions

Game Night: Zine Fest Special!

Sunday 25th, 3–7pm Ages 18+

Join us for a special edition of our friendly, welcoming TTRPG (table-top role-playing game) group. No previous experience needed! Just bring your imagination and some good vibes.

We're going to play "i'm sorry did you say street magic" by Caro Asercion, a TTRPG about creating and exploring fantastical cities. Together we will “discover and imagine a city filled with life and vivid detail, packed with a myriad of neighbourhoods, landmarks, and residents. Discover their true names, and the ways that they intersect—then set events in motion that will change or alter their relationships.”

Content warning: The game has incorporated safety tools, which will be discussed at the beginning of the event This event will have automated captions

FEARY: A Theory Reading Group –Zine

Fest Special!

Wednesday 28th, 6:30–8:30pm Ages 18+ 28

All are welcome. Down with academic elitism!

FEARY: A Theory Reading Group sets out to democratise access to theoretical material. The group aims to be a welcoming and supportive space in which to discuss and demystify theory.

For our Zine Fest Special, we’ll be discussing a chapter of ‘Small is Beautiful’, by E.F. Schumacher, a collection of essays that look at the benefits of small and context appropriate technologies in an economic sense; ‘A study of economics as if people mattered’! Copies of this chapter will be distributed to all attendees.

FEARY is run by Emma Flynn, a PhD student working on representations of sexual violence in English and French literature and film. FEARY is an attempt at forging a new space to read and learn collectively. There are no stupid questions here, but infinite intelligent answers. This event will have automated captions

Ground in Sound with Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.)

Thursday 29th, 7–8pm

Ages 18+

Please note: This eventisfortrans,queerand intersexBlackpeopleand peopleofcolouronly.

‘Ground in Sound’ is an interactive and intimate workshop presented by Black Obsidian Soundsystem (B.O.S.S.) exploring how QTIBPOC can find themselves rooted through sonics. Drawing upon previous work from B.O.S.S. such as a sound meditation and short film, participants will be called to reflect upon the role sounds play in their life, opening yourself to new experiences with sound from the selected pieces, reflective exercises and discussion with others in the group.

Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) was established in the summer of 2018 with the intention of bringing together a community of queer, trans and non binary people of colour involved in art, sound, music and radical activism. Following in the legacies of sound system culture B.O.S.S.'s intention is to learn, build and sustain a resource for collective struggles. This event will have automated captions

An Evening in the Butch Archive

Check out butcharchive.com in advance.

Friday 30th, 6:30–8pm Ages 14+ 30

Join Darcy Leigh for An Evening in the Butch Archive. She will share stories of her adventures in butch culture and DIY archiving as well as readings from her work. Darcy will share her favourite butch archive items and lead us in activities for engaging the archive together. You will be invited to interact via chat, voice and/or video but this is not required, just an option.

Darcy Leigh is a zinester and DIY archivist. She co-runs Easter Road Press, an insurrectionary transfeminist press based in Leith, as well as running Butch Archive. When not deep in DIY culture, Darcy is an academic who researches colonialism, co-runs a program enabling weirdo (aka ‘non-traditional’) students to access law, and is committed to the end of the ivory tower.

This event will have live captions, BSL & audio description

We use Eventbrite for all of our ticketed events. After booking a ticket, you will be sent 3 reminder emails from Eventbrite leading up to the event. We will also send emails that share any resources you will need in order to participate.

Unless otherwise stated, all events at Glasgow Zine Fest will take place using Zoom. Each email you receive will contain a button you can click to access the online event link and password.

If in doubt, you should log into your Eventbrite account using the same details you used to buy your ticket and access this information from there. 24 hours before the event begins, you will be sent a separate email with a direct link to the event.

Please email glasgowzinelibrary@gmail.com for any queries or issues.

32 Safer Spaces

Glasgow Zine Fest aims to be a safe space for all visitors, staff members, and volunteers. All staff members, volunteers and visitors must agree to follow our Safer Spaces.

Some of the zines featured in the Zine Fair and programmed events may cover potentially distressing topics. We are working to ensure that these topics are indicated, however this is not a guarantee.

Discrimination against anyone on the grounds of: gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, religion, class, survivor status, HIV status, body size or any protected characteristic will not be permitted.

Do not make assumptions about the identity of others.

Use the pronouns that others indicate as theirs.

Be empathetic and don’t assume your physical and emotional barriers are the same as others.

Accountability: abusive behaviour will not be tolerated. If you experience, witness, or are aware of any abusive behaviour by an individual(s) within our space and raise it with a member of staff GZF will address it.

When you recieve a ticket through Eventbrite, we will receive a limited amount of information about you (name, postcode and email address) We will never receive your payment methods from these channels. If your order includes a physical element, e.g a zine or a book or a materials pack, we will also receive the shipping address you choose to provide.

After an event, we will email you an optional feedback form. Glasgow Zine Fest will not use your information for any other purposes. Please see the privacy policy on our website for more details.

© Glasgow Zine Library, SCIO SC050309

Supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland grants

This work has been made possible by an award from Postcode Community Trust, a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. The Postcode Community Trust is a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Credits

Programme design

Lucy Watkins

Cover artwork

Kaitlin Chan