Shotgun Seamstress's Page

The first issue of Shotgun Seamstress came out in August 2006. I wanted to pick up where other zines that addressed race & punk left off. Zines like Evolution of a Race Riot and How to Stage a Coup and also personal zines by folks like Lauren Martin and Bianca Ortiz, really helped me out. I was either the only one or one of very few Black kids and people of color in my scene and I needed to read the words of other kids having similar experiences. The only thing was, a lot of the writing in those zines made it seem like if you were truly through with racism and cared about your identity as a person of color, you'd leave punk rock. I remember how Mimi Nguyen, the editor of Race Riot used to pride herself on being ex-punk. But I love being Black and I love punk rock. I don't want to give anything up.

Without being a personal zine, Shotgun Seamstress is a celebration of every side of myself. The punk part, the Black first-generation Nigerian part, the queer part, the feminist part, the artist-loner-weirdo part. Hopefully Black punks, feminists, queers, and DIY artists & musicians find in Shotgun Seamstress a world where they don't have to choose between important identities. It's kind of like a fanzine, full of interviews, book reviews, profiles on important Black punks, artists, activists & musicians, and little bits of my personal experience wrapped up in stories about other people or other times in history. I get lots of submissions from other people.

Shotgun Seamstress available through:
Learning to Leave a Paper Trail Distro
Stranger Danger Distro
Lola and the Cartwheels Distro (UK)
In Other Words Feminist Bookstore (Portland, Oregon)

Shotgun Seamstress on MySpace
ISSUE 3: MONEY IS FAKE

ISSUE 2: EVERYBODY SAY LOVE