PLATTSBURGH, NY. (WCAX) – It was a zine take-over at the Strand Center for the Arts Saturday afternoon.
“It can be as personal, as expansive as you want, and it doesn’t really even actually take that long,” Jennifer Giambruno Gordon of Plattsburgh said.
A zine – short for magazine – is a self-published print with no set format.
“Everyone’s really supportive of each other. They just want to encourage you to do more work, so there’s space for everyone, which I really like,” Giambruno Gordon said.
Giambruno Gordon, an English teacher, started her zine journey last year at a workshop at the Strand.
Now, she is showcasing her poetry booklets at the first-ever North Country Zine Fest.
“I don’t want to be just locked into my own perspective in Plattsburgh. I want to see other points of view and see how other people are living and what their experiences are, and support that,” Giambruno Gordon said.
The inaugural event is both an opportunity for artists to share their work with the community, and connect with visitors.
“Both of us, we’re really active in the arts community in the North Country, so people have gotten used to seeing our zines, but that’s very surface level of what is out there. We’ve got to be able to expose the community to more diverse voices than just ours,” Megan Charland with the Strand Center said.
Zines come in many forms, from paper booklets to glossy magazines. Vermont-based artist Katherine Leung does both.
“I also like to make paper zines with my husband. We’re both into permaculture and farming, so we like to make zines about topics that we feel there isn’t a lot of accessible literature about,” Leung said.
One of her projects, “Canto Cutie”, features Cantonese artists from around the world.
Her work helped strengthen the Cantonese Diaspora in Vermont, sparking the Cantonese club, which meets monthly in Chittenden County restaurants.
“There’s children, there’s grandparents that attend. We host visitors from Hong Kong, temporary workers, immigrants — all sorts of Cantonese people who find their way to Vermont.,” Leung said.
At the event, visitors could make their own zines on-site.
The medium is easily accessible and always personal.
“I kind of decided that I wanted to share my own perspective. I didn’t necessarily see myself reflected in the works that were around me, so I felt like it was up to me to make that space for myself and to share it with others,” Nia Belton of Long Island said.
Organizers say they’re already thinking about making the event an annual occurrence.