This workshop will begin with a short presentation about what a zine is, what it can accomplish, and some of the simplest and easiest ways to make one for beginners. In brief, a “zine” can be defined as a DIY magazine, created outside of the confines of a typical mass-produced, commercial magazine such as TIME or LIFE. A zine can be many things: a self-published collection of poems, a collectively produced educational resource on something like prison reform, an artist’s sketchbook, and much more. We draw inspiration from small, independent, collectively-produced zines that are easily distributed so as to educate, inspire, and agitate such as the activist and art zines found in the Barnard Zine Library.
The focus of this workshop will be on fair and affordable housing rights and the legislation surrounding them. We will also focus on how these issues relate to the current political moment and how zines comment on and spread knowledge about these issues. A special guest, George Donnelly, will provide us with some real lived experience and perspective on this by briefly discussing his work.
George Donnelly, Esq. is a Civil Rights Attorney at the Public Interest Law Center where he represents, and advocates for, Philadelphia tenants, 91% of whom face evictions without lawyers. Through his work with the Tenant Advocacy Project, Mr. Donnelly represents tenants in municipal court and brings affirmative cases against landlords and their agents when they break the law. Mr. Donnelly received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2015.
