Had a great time at today’s Carnaval @SomerStreets!  We were glad to be asked to participate by East Somerville Mainstreets, a great, local non-profit “dedicated to developing community initiatives and events that reflect and promote the true character of East Somerville as a vibrant place to live, visit, and do business.”  It’s awesome to have the opportunity to connect with our neighbors and other members of the community!

Last week one of our last zine workshops supported by the Somerville Arts Council, “Zines in the Classroom: A Workshop for Educators” convened at the library.  As a former classroom educator, this workshop was very dear to my heart.  As I wrote in the workshop description, I am excited about the creation of DIY media as a powerful (as well as cheap and accessible!) way to empower students to process and express their knowledge and experiences.

Seven former and current classroom educators from Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island attended the workshop, arriving with a range of experiences with zines and zine culture and a host of interesting questions ranging from how to come up with successful prompts for students to the relationship between zines and on-line social media.

During the workshop we looked at zines made about teaching and learning before exploring resources in various sections of the PZL and concluded by creating our own “flash zine” about our experiences as educators.  Participants, your finished product is in the mail and on its way to you!  And others, come check it out as the newest edition to our collection.  It includes a list of selected suggested zines for the K-12 classroom.  Learn more about this workshop series here.

Did you know that the first 25 donors who contribute $30 or more to our May fund drive will get a one-of-a-kind photo zine made about Papercut by your hardworking Papercut Librarians?  It’s true!   Each zine is hand-made, hand-written, and hand-stitched, featuring beautiful black and white photos of our awesome new space.  Donate $30 or more today to get your own!  Donation can be made on-line via ChipIn, through paypal directed to papercut(at)riseup.net, or through checks made out to Papercut Zine Library, and sent to: 226
Pearl St, Somerville, MA 02145.  (And remember, anyone who visits Papercut to donate just $5 or more will receive a gift pack with other Papercut goodies.)

This past Saturday Papercut ran its second community workshop generously supported by a grant from the Somerville Arts Council.  LB, a PZL librarian who joined the collective earlier this year, has been working for several months to organize our substantial collection of underground, hard-to-find, and independently produced comics.

In “Comics 101″ LB discussed the historical context that led to formation of both popular and underground comic trends in the United States, focusing on the impact of the Comics Code Authority and its rigid regulation of content in mainstream comic publications.  He then gave participants an overview of the eclectic and diverse holdings in PZL’s collection, ranging from zine-style DIY publications to larger-scale publications from both fringe and mainstream comic publishers.

We were pleased to welcome several first time visitors to the library for this event.  While zines are clearly the focus of our library’s collection, we hope that those with particular interests in comics will recognize the amazing resource that PZL represents within the Boston Comics community!

Thanks to a generous grant from the Somerville Arts Council, PZL librarians Kimberly and Anna were able to lead a zine making workshop in March for over 40 7th grade students at the Arthur D. Healey school, the first of a series of zine-making workshops that the library will run throughout the Somerville community.

The workshop began with students exploring selections from the PZL collection and coming up with a class definition of a zine.  After discussing the reasons why individuals or communities might choose to make DIY publications, each class generated the material for their own zine in one class period!  Student pages included comics, reviews, reflections,  collages, and how-to’s.  It was a great time!  Here’s what the teachers had to say:

Thank you for the presentation by the Papercut Library to the Healey School in Somerville! The students were fully engaged, and left with full understanding about what zines are and their uses. The kids had a fantastic time creating their own zines, and didn’t want the time to end! Thanks again, and I am sure we have created some zine enthusiasts.

All the best,

Sherri Sklar

Humanities Teacher, Healey School

Your visit inspired my students to begin making their own zines in their free time!  The kids were deeply engrossed in the materials you brought along and in creating their own page.  Your presentation style was highly engaging, students were excited to participate, and I was impressed with their creative zine ideas.  We will have to build in some time to the curriculum to revisit the zine genre in the future.

Thank you!
Claire Schu
Humanities Teacher, Healey School

Hi everyone!  I’m a new-ish librarian at Papercut, and this is my first post.   I’ve loved comix and zines for a looong time and for almost as long I’ve been studying and working in the field of comparative religion.   PZL’s religion section has some really interesting work, but it’s definitely one of our smaller sections and… I think it could be even awesome-er.

This Sunday, Dec. 12th from 2:00 – 7:00 I’m inviting folks to come by and put together a zine expressing ideas, thoughts, experiences, writings, art, or aaanything else related to religion.

There will be drinks, treats, paper, scissors, glue, etc……….

I want to make a zine about Islamic Steampunk!

I want to make a comic about Perpetua, the badass, gender-shifting, gladiator-confronting early Christian martyr!

I want to zine-ify “Thunder, Perfect Mind”: an ancient, near-east document discovered in the 20th century expressing a mystical and feminine voice of the divine!

Anything you want to make?  COME ON BY!