Campus Community Invited to Help Create First U of A Zine

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University of Arkansas students, faculty and staff are invited to create a page for the zine HASHTAG at an event set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 18 in Arkansas Union 310. Participants will be entered to win a $50 gift card to the University of Arkansas Bookstore. 

A zine is a homemade, scrapbook-style magazine created to raise awareness for different causes, spread ideas and facilitate self-expression. Participants will create a page centered around one existing or original hashtag that expresses a personal idea or opinion. Pictures, words, cartoons, stickers, and writing utensils will be provided.  

"The zine-making event is a part of completing my communication M.A. capstone project, which focuses on zines as a radical feminist consciousness raising," said event organizer Laine McGinty. "This event is inspired by the punk feminists of the 90s who didn't see their ideas represented in popular media and decided to create a media genre of their own. HASHTAG is going to give the U of A a chance to physically create an artifact of student life that most authentically represents their passions, whether they be personal or political or anywhere in between. This project is about bringing the zine-making experience to a campus community that I've been a part of for six years, and I couldn't imagine a better way to conclude my time at the U of A." 

The completed zine will be preserved in the Libraries' Special Collections. Artists' books on topics such as gender, mass incarceration, climate change and immigration will be on display at the event, as will other Special Collections materials related to various social justice themes.  

"While Special Collections doesn't have any zines in our collections (yet!), the materials in our Feminist and LGBT Publications (MC 2022) cover some of the same topics that zines would go on to cover in the 1990s, and our artists' books share some similarities with zines," said Kara Flynn, research and educational services archivist. "Since Laine's event is focused around the idea of hashtags, which are often created by or about contemporary social movements or issues, items from both of these collections seemed like a good fit for the event, and might even provide students with some inspiration in their zine-making process."