This year, Park welcomed zine club to its list of extracurriculars led by students. Zine club centers around sharing messages and spreading information through miniature magazines created by members. Zine club has become a way that Park students can get involved in activism and social justice in a creative and artistic way.
Senior Aurora Pascual said a person making a zine has the freedom to express whatever they choose in their zine. They said zines are a creative endeavor for expression.
“Zines are, by definition, independent,” Pascual said. “There’s no one telling you what you can or can’t write about. You can write or draw anything you want, and it can be about anything. (Zines) are an art form, so (they are) inherently creative.”
Junior Molly Haen said zines are a unique art form that she’s enjoyed diving into, putting the pieces together to make a final product. She said figuring out how everything will fit together makes zines a special form of creativity.
“Zines are a different medium than I normally work with, so it’s an interesting puzzle to try and fit everything onto one small paper, and it’s a nice break from other (art forms),” Haen said.
Club advisor Kara Marlin said zines are a innovative way to distribute information and build a movement in a very digestible way. They said since zines are small and a quick dump of information, they are a strong way to grow a group fighting for a cause.
“Zines are a really great way to get out information and to express ourselves, but especially with social justice movements,” Marlin said. “It’s a great way to spread your message (and) get more people to join your movement because it’s this informal way of dispersing information. It’s bite-sized, and the zines are small. They’re really easy to read super quickly, and so it blends itself really well, starting small political movements and growing them.”
Pascual said zines are used to convey a message to the public without tying back to the maker. They said zines can be a medium for activism on more controversial topics.
“Zines can be anonymous and hard to trace (back to the creator),” Pascual said. “They’re also a really easy way to spread information. If you have a social justice issue, people might not agree with it, the government might not agree with it, but if you make a zine about it you can tell people about the issue without attaching your name to it.”
According to Haen, zine club has become a space for members to get ideas from one another and trade their creations. She said when anyone makes a new zine, they’ll print more to share with each other.
“(Zine club is) made for people to have a community where you get inspiration from each other’s zines and share,” Haen said. “It’s really fun to trade zines, which is what we do with each other. When we make a new zine, we’ll make a bunch of copies of it and then give them to each other like a trade. It’s fun just to hang out and build a cute little zine community.”
Marlin said they hope zine club will draw in students hoping to involve themselves in social justice in a more artistic way. They said the zine club could become a new format for students to engage in activism through extracurriculars.
“I hope zine club makes other students feel like they can get involved,” Marlin said. “It’s great that we have Students Organized for Anti-Racism, which is an amazing group, but I think some students are looking to engage in social justice differently and (in) more of an artistic way. My hope is that students find a place here.”
