Posts tagged zine

QUAC is an Orange County (UCI)-based zine project dedicated to archiving and distributing queer/trans voices, histories, experiences, knowledge(s), and survival tactics in the face of violent silencing within public space and dominant culture.  As QUAC has become more established within the zine and queer/trans community, we’ve seen the growth and development of certain aesthetics, most notably anger, militancy, and rage.  These three aesthetics have functioned in multiple ways throughout QUAC, but we’ve found that the pieces that center these elements in their work are some of the most effective / thought-provoking pieces that start conversations and build community solidarity.  We, the editors, realize that there are often very few places queer and trans folk can publish angry / militant / raging things.  As social justice minded activists and organizers (in our own ways), we recognize that there are a lot of fucked up things in the world to be angry about, and for many of us, this anger can become destructive if it is not given the proper outlet.  As such, QUAC aims to become a space for this anger, to both “vent” a little bit, and to build a community in solidarity with the struggles of our complex and diverse community(s).

potential ideas for material include, but are not limited to:

• Uses of Anger:  How do you navigate (your) anger?  In what ways has anger been productive?  Destructive?  What constitutes productive/destructive anger?
• Coping mechanisms:  Often times, our organizing work is against structures that have been in existence for hundreds of years (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.).  Fighting battles that you cannot win within the next few days / weeks / months / years is physically, mentally, and spiritually tiring.  In what ways have you learned to navigate this?  How do you cope with the (violent) things occurring around you and your community(s)?
• Queer militancy:  The queer and trans movements blossomed out of radical liberationist movements of the 50s and 60s.  However as we’ve seen, this liberationist framework has been obscured by more (homo)normative / liberal frameworks of thinking since the marriage equality movement of the early 90s.  In what ways are militancy and queerness linked, historically, epistemologically, and ontologically?  In what ways has a queer militancy resisted / subverted hetero/homonormativity?  How do you navigate your own queer militancy, or why do you refuse a queer militancy standpoint?
• Erasure:  In what ways have you experienced erasure?  We’ve noticed that a lot of anger / rage stems from a politics of visibility.  What is at stake for the silent / erased?  Can anger / rage break this silence?
• Triggers:  What triggers your anger, rage, and/or your militancy?  When you recognize these triggers or possibilities of these triggers, what do you do pre-emptively?  How have you created spaces with these triggers in mind?  How can we create safer spaces, using our own experiences with anger and violence as insight?
• Responses to anger:  How do you respond to anger and frustration?  How do you de-escalate situations?  How productive is anger for you?

As mentioned above, please do not feel that submissions need to be restricted to or specifically answer these questions. QUAC is interested in hearing as many different voices as possible, in whatever form or on whatever topic they choose to speak. If in the process of writing your piece unfolds into something else and deviates from the questions above, we’d still love to take a look. If you have an older piece which you think might be relevant to this issue (or not, hey, we’ll read it anyway) please feel free to submit it, too.

QUAC has always had a commitment to local artists, poets, and musicians—we would love to have your work in the next issue.  Please aim to have finalized submissions emailed to us by March 1^st, 2012 at QueerZineUCI@gmail.com

Included in your submission, please include the name that you would like to be printed under, contact information (email, blog, website, etc.)  for our readers, and any other information that you would like to be printed alongside your submission.  Also, please include a current mailing address so that the editors can send you a complimentary copy of the fourth issue as a thanks for helping out with the project :]!

Also, the QUAC editors always need help with layouts and collages, if you would like to participate in a zine-making / background-making session, please email or message the editors.

The best way to stay up to date with the project is to (continue to) follow us on tumblr and “like” the facebook page.

We greatly appreciate all of the time and effort of the contributors, fellow zinesters, friends, and supporters of the project.

We greatly anticipate your work, comments, suggestions, and love.

In solidarity:
QUAC Editors

(Please reblog and repost elsewhere to spread the word.  If on tumblr, please reblog as text please so the whole post shows!  Thank you kindly!  :])

So excited!  The editors are having a QUAC layout party this weekend, send us a message and we can send you the details :]!!!  The 3rd issue will be ready by the 22nd of October (which is our fundraiser / launch party).

More info here:  https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211074695627046

This is our largest and most awesome issue yet!  We want to thank all those who have contributed and sustained the project, as well as our loyal readers.  Thank you!

-QUAC Editors

(Please reblog and repost elsewhere to spread the word.  If on tumblr, please reblog as text please so the whole post shows!  Thank you kindly!  :])

QUAC is an Orange County (UCI)-based zine project dedicated to archiving and distributing queer/trans voices, histories, experiences, knowledge(s), and survival tactics in the face of violent silencing within public space and dominant culture.  In keeping with this commitment to the queer/trans body as it navigates spaces (the university system, Orange County as a conservative / white hegemonic public, family spaces, sexuality, gender, etc.), the third issue of QUAC will be centered around queer / trans violence. 

potential ideas for material include, but are not limited to:

• Definitions of queer / trans violence:  Is violence always physical?  How does violence operate within the queer / trans identity itself?  What is at stake in defining queer / trans violence?  What is at stake in ignoring violence?
• Survival tactics and strategies:  What are some means of overcoming violence(s), both within and outside of our community(s)?  Particular examples or moments of perseverance, activism, pro-active resistance would be useful in creating a communal pool of knowledge.
• Intersectionality:  How do our multiple identities create different experiences with violence?  Is inter-communal and/or intra-communal violence an issue at UCI and in Orange County?
• Policing:  Many queer / trans people have had violent experiences with a policing of their bodies, whether it be in homosocial spaces (locker rooms, greek life, sports teams, bathrooms) or public space in general (glares on ring road for holding a partner’s hand, drinks at the pub, the police, etc.).  In what ways have we been pushing back against these types of violences?  Or is it possible to escape / resist this policing of heteronormativity / cis-normativity?  How do we reproduce these policing mechanisms with our bodies and language as well?
• Bullying:  In light of intense public scrutiny of queer / trans bodies due to massive amounts of media attention on the bullied queer / trans (?) youth, what are the possibilities of change?  How can this momentum be utilized?  Are there problems with the way in which the queer / trans body is represented?  Is this a type of violence?
• Silence:  What types of violences are we currently silent on?  Is silence / inaction a type of violence as well?
• Gender:  In what ways is the gender binary violent (upon all bodies?)?  How do we define our gender in (potentially) violent spaces? 
• Hetero/homonormativity:  How does a constant blasting of normative images violently erase / elide other ways of loving, being, and existing?  What tactics can overcome / liberate our bodies?
• Family: Many queer/trans people experience violence not only in public spaces but also in the private space of the home. How can we develop healthy relationships with family members who try to silence our ways of self expression?  What strategies and tactics have been useful in surviving these types of violences?

As mentioned above, please do not feel that submissions need to be restricted to or specifically answer these questions. QUAC is interested in hearing as many different voices as possible, in whatever form or on whatever topic they choose to speak. If in the process of writing your piece unfolds into something else and deviates from the questions above, we’d still love to take a look. If you have an older piece which you think might be relevant to this issue (or not, hey, we’ll read it anyway) please feel free to submit it, too.

QUAC has always had a commitment to local artists, poets, and musicians—we would love to have your work in the next issue.  Please aim to have finalized submissions emailed to us by September 30^th, 2011 at QueerZineUCI@gmail.com

Included in your submission, please include the name that you would like to be printed under, contact information (email, blog, website, etc.)  for our readers, and any other information that you would like to be printed alongside your submission.  Also, please include a current mailing address so that the editors can send you a complimentary copy of the third issue as a thanks for helping out with the project :]!

Also, the QUAC editors always need help with layouts and collages, if you would like to participate in a zine-making / background-making session, please email or message the editors.

The best way to stay up to date with the project is to (continue to) follow us on tumblr and “like” the facebook page.

It’s been exactly a year since QUAC was first started, and it has been an amazing ride thus far.  We greatly appreciate all of the time and effort of the contributors, fellow zinesters, friends, and supporters of the project.

We greatly anticipate your work, comments, suggestions, and love.

In solidarity:
QUAC Editors

December is here….. that means the deadline for issue 2 is less than a month away! Good luck on finals (for those who have them) and best of luck preparing for the holiday season!

This next issue is focusing on contextualized queerness, in particular queerness in a particular geographical region or location. How has location signaled or interpellated your queerness? How has your location altered, strengthened, destroyed, and/or developed your queer identity? How has the media contextualized your queerness and essentialized it within the context of a particular location? What aspects about your queerness resonate with your surroundings? What aspects are in conflict? How has your understanding of normativity (around you directly and indirectly) changed as a result of your queer identity? How has it normalized your identity?

These are just some questions to get your mind going if you are having trouble thinking of something to submit! Also keep in mind, queer perspectives and critiques on current events are crucial to this project’s mission statement of documenting queer histories and experiences. What is a queer reading of the “gay suicides?” What is at stake with the rulings on DADT and Prop 8? What about “queer tourism” during this holiday season and the way queer bodies are read at touristy hot spots? Does your queerness change the ways you engage your family for the holidays? How about a queer reading of the current tuition increases and the chalking events that have become an issue regarding free speech? To what effect is queer silencing an issue at UCI? Or is it an issue?

What kinds of alternative sexual (queer) spaces do you know of in Orange County? How have these counterpublics served queer culture and the cultivation of queer identities? What is at stake with the gentrification of many of these locations (if there are any left in the OC)?

How have you experienced queerness as an ally? How does queerness get mapped on to your body, and what kinds of negotiations are involved (internally and externally)? How queer can you be as an ally? What does queer mean to an ally?

You could probably write novels on the topics above but if you still need help, don’t be shy to ask! If you need some clarification on QUAC, see the previous issue on the group page or give me a call / message! Again, this is a collective project and as such, it is only as valuable as the energy we all put in to it.

Remember that if you are submitting art, keep in mind that QUAC is printed in black and white.

Best of luck! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! I greatly anticipate your submissions :]!

QueerZineUCI@gmail.com

Best,
Cameron :]