The second annual Queer Zine Fest London (QZFL), which takes place this Sunday at the artist-run Space Station Sixty-Five in south-east London, is a chance to celebrate queer, lo-fi zine culture and publishing.
Alongside a broad selection of ‘tables’ hosting queer zinesters and DIY publishers from Manchester, Leeds, Berlin, Canada, USA and London, the programme includes screenings, talks and workshops and aims to provide a space where queer zinesters can ‘connect, socialise, plot, scheme, empower and inspire together’. This year’s event also coincides with World AIDS Day.
QZFL is organised by journalist, writer and zinester Charlotte Richardson Andrews, who describes zines as “small, self-published, low-budget print publications” with contents that range from “the intellectual to the lo-brow, porn to academia, music to politics, fiction to art, essays to interviews, love letters to rants, or a bright, bold bricolage combination of all the above.”
In honour of World AIDS Day, the festival will also include an archive zine and poster exhibition focusing on the AIDS epidemic of the 1990s. The archive will centre on DISEASED PARIAH NEWS, a magazine by and for HIV-positive people that used dark humour, crass wit and sarcasm to address the epidemic. It was published in San Francisco from 1990-99.
A small selection of publications and zinesters appearing at QZFL include Sister Ectoplasma, Cool Schmool, Spill The Zines, LIES Journal and Zsa Zsa Zine, while speakers, panelists and workshop hosts include Seb of Cinnamon Buns, Kirsty of Hard Femme Zines, Milo Miller of The Queer Zine Archive Project and David Shenton of DS Comics.
Queer Zine Fest London takes place on Sunday 1 December 2013 at Space Station Sixty-Five, from 12-5pm. Entry is free. www.facebook.com/lgbtqzinefestlondon
