After three years of planning and patiently waiting, the Paper Plains Zine Fest will come to Lawrence on Saturday, Sept. 3, bringing together lovers of creative storytelling.
Originally planned for April 2020, the pandemic altered the event’s course, but organizers were determined to make it happen.
Zines, or short, self-published booklets, explore a range of topics. Genres include art, design, illustration, poetry, personal narratives, politics, subcultures and more, leaving ample room for each individual to find their niche.
The zine fest will include more than 80 local and regional artists, spotlighting people of color, women and femmes, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and young people, according to a news release from organizers. These artists’ handcrafted zines will be available for sale, as well as some for free, and attendees will be able to mingle with artists while browsing their work.
“Paper Plains Zine Fest is a one-day event where participants exhibit, sell, and trade their independently-published zines, pamphlets, comix, books, and other radical readables of many forms,” according to the release. “… Zine culture makes the bold assertion that anyone sufficiently motivated can be an author.”
Additionally, there will be various programs for all ages, like mini zine-making workshop for kids hosted by the Lawrence Public Library, a panel on self-publishing, and a roundtable discussion with KU instructors who utilize zines in their classrooms.
The University of Kansas Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity, one of the event’s sponsors, will also release “Queer Futures,” a zine partnership with KU’s Center for Sexuality & Gender Diversity, and hold a discussion with its contributors.
To conclude the event, Imani Wadud, a Black feminist educator and Ph.D. candidate in KU’s Department of American Studies, will give a keynote address.
Megan Williams, who’s a planning committee member, spoke to the power in zine-making. She said she has been able to implement zines into her work as the assistant director of the Emily Taylor Center, where there are monthly Zine Nights for students.
“At once personal and political, zines allow women, gender minorities, and other marginalized people to engage in creative self-expression, to speak for themselves in a society that often silences them,” Williams said.
“While many people sell their zines in an effort to recoup the cost of their production, zinesters are rarely motivated by financial gain. Typically, they make zines because they love to create and share their creations with other like-minded people. In contrast to a profit-driven market, zines foster a gift economy of sharing and exchange.”
Paper Plains Zine Fest is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3 at Van Go, 715 New Jersey St. in Lawrence. See a full lineup of workshops and speakers at this link.
Though the event is free, attendees are encouraged to bring spending money to purchase zines from the featured artists, which usually range between $1 and $15 in price.
Vendors will be both inside Van Go as well as outside in the adjacent parking lot. All programming and workshops will be inside, where masks are required at all times, per the event’s COVID-19 mitigation protocols.
The zine fest is sponsored by Wonder Fair, the Emily Taylor Center, and Van Go. For more information and to stay up to date on the event, visit its website, Instagram or Facebook.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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