zine workshops for youth (13-18)

[erin]

Does anyone do zine workshops for young folks? I work with the Youth Media Institute, we do trainings on media justice and hold workshops on media arts (photoshop, video and audio production,etc) with young people who are high school aged. I recently suggested giving zine making/book making workshops since we try to talk about the significance of producing/publishing your own work vs. being censored and going along with corporate media. The first one went pretty well but I would love love love suggestions from anyone who has done these before. We aren't able to bring our youth to the copy center so it kind of sucks for them to miss out on that part but that's what we are dealing with. I taught some interesting binding techniques aside from just staples and try to get them to be as unique as possible with what they make.
I'd love to bouce ideas off folks who do this!
Thanks <3<3<3

[amy // twelveohtwo]

paging Grrrl Zines A Go Go!

[Samantha Trees]

That sounds so amazing! I work at the Calgary Public Library, and am going to start doing Zine Making 101 workshops for teens here. I haven't done any zine workshops for youth, yet, and am really excited to start!

I would just suggest bringing a bunch of zines written by youth, to try and inspire the youth you are working with, and show them what kids their age are making. But you may already be doing the ;)

[Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go]

We do these! our website has a basic rundown of how we do them - give or take logistical details. This is also available from us as a zine.

Generally speaking we do collaborative zines (one page per person) using bins of scrap and typewriters. Sometimes we'll do single-page fold-ups if we're really short on time. We've found that youth workshops require sharp timing because attention spans lag. We also find that it's usually helpful to have a topic in order to (again) focus attention. Sometimes it's just a matter of walking around and encouraging some kids that indeed their ideas are worth putting down.

Not sure what kind of tips you need, so let us know.
Margarat - Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go

[David Lasky]

I've done workshops here and there. I always try to work mini-comics in my comics classes (if a photocopier is available).

ZAPP is hoping to get programming going at some point (but doesn't have the space for it currently).

I don't know if I've sent you my "how to" zine...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26542262@N00/tags/zine/
Feel free to print it out if it will give you ideas... But please don't go distributing it.

Best wishes,
David

[erin]

that's great! it's really really amazing to see folks get excited and into what they are making.
i did bring a collection of some of my zines but I think most of them are not as interesting to them as they are to me. do you have any suggestions of youth made zines that would get them inspired? i think i would really like my organization to have a collection going that we could use as examples of what other young folks are doing.
thanks!

Samantha Trees said:

That sounds so amazing! I work at the Calgary Public Library, and am going to start doing Zine Making 101 workshops for teens here. I haven't done any zine workshops for youth, yet, and am really excited to start!

I would just suggest bringing a bunch of zines written by youth, to try and inspire the youth you are working with, and show them what kids their age are making. But you may already be doing the ;)

[erin]

thanks for the info, your program sounds amazing and the website was definitely helpful. if i can think of anything specific I will definitely ask. our workshop is actually a 3 week program with 2 2hour long classes each week so they are each creating their own zine.
do you ever sell any of your zines made during the workshops? YMI may want to buy a few from you if you do sell them to show some of our youth as examples in the future.
Thanks!

Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go said:

We do these! our website has a basic rundown of how we do them - give or take logistical details. This is also available from us as a zine.

Generally speaking we do collaborative zines (one page per person) using bins of scrap and typewriters. Sometimes we'll do single-page fold-ups if we're really short on time. We've found that youth workshops require sharp timing because attention spans lag. We also find that it's usually helpful to have a topic in order to (again) focus attention. Sometimes it's just a matter of walking around and encouraging some kids that indeed their ideas are worth putting down.

Not sure what kind of tips you need, so let us know.
Margarat - Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go

[erin]

thanks for the link!
i really feel like YMI should get hooked up with ZAPP in some way for workshops or something. seriously. I'll be there this afternoon, maybe we can chat about it.


David Lasky said:

I've done workshops here and there. I always try to work mini-comics in my comics classes (if a photocopier is available).

ZAPP is hoping to get programming going at some point (but doesn't have the space for it currently).

I don't know if I've sent you my "how to" zine...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26542262@N00/tags/zine/
Feel free to print it out if it will give you ideas... But please don't go distributing it.

Best wishes,
David

[Samantha Trees]

I stumbled across a zine a year or two ago made by a 7 year old, whose mom runs some awesome distro who's name I forget... that could have been really helpful. I am going to dig through my zines and see what I can find, including possibly a copy of that if I haven't given it away.

If you want to message me your mailing address, we could do a trade or something, and I can send you copies of any youth made zines I have.

I started my perzine, Trees, when I was 15, and have written issues up until when I was 18. If you would like some copies of my zine, I would love to share it. In the first issue, I wrote about dropping out of high school and a bit about hating my parents, haha, very popular and common issues for teens, I would say?

You could also maybe touch on online journals, like blogspot or live journal. A LOT of teens use these are modes of self expression. These can be really accessible to teens, as a lot of them are realy comfortable expressing themselves on computers. You could talk about the benefits of maybe using some of that writing, or writing on similar feelings or topics, in a printed zine?

I know of teens, or zinesters of any age group, who have literally printed things off of their online journal, formated them, and put them in their zine. I think talking about this can be super helpful. For some reason people can write AMAZING thigns when they are ranting on a computer, and it would be awesome to use that in a zine.


erin said:

that's great! it's really really amazing to see folks get excited and into what they are making.
i did bring a collection of some of my zines but I think most of them are not as interesting to them as they are to me. do you have any suggestions of youth made zines that would get them inspired? i think i would really like my organization to have a collection going that we could use as examples of what other young folks are doing.
thanks!

Samantha Trees said:

That sounds so amazing! I work at the Calgary Public Library, and am going to start doing Zine Making 101 workshops for teens here. I haven't done any zine workshops for youth, yet, and am really excited to start!

I would just suggest bringing a bunch of zines written by youth, to try and inspire the youth you are working with, and show them what kids their age are making. But you may already be doing the ;)

[Emma Jane Falconer]

I was going to do one as a class project with the kids I was teaching English to at the language camp I worked at this summer, but sadly my idiotic boss severely limited the teacher's use of the photocopier to make occasional worksheets, let alone a photo-copier heavy project like that, and I literally did not have any spare time or cash to get copies done elsewhere. What a missed opportunity!

[amy // twelveohtwo]

Samantha Trees said:

I stumbled across a zine a year or two ago made by a 7 year old, whose mom runs some awesome distro who's name I forget... that could have been really helpful. I am going to dig through my zines and see what I can find, including possibly a copy of that if I haven't given it away.

sage who runs sweet candy distro?
shes on here..

[Trent Rampage]

my partner, who is a youth worker, is doing a zine workshop for 13-19 year olds.
her email is: [e-mail]
i've put up the event on We Make Zines here

[Trent Rampage]

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