Scribes and Vibes festival celebrates Duluth's zine scene
DULUTH — Zines are making a comeback, and poet, artist and builder of the artistic community Jess Morgan wants to celebrate that.
A zine is generally a piece of self-published work created by authors, poets or artists that is printed in small batches and distributed on a local level.
"Zines are really multidisciplinary, too, as they have both visual art and poetry; and as someone who likes to involve myself in different types of disciplines as an artist, I like that zines are reflective of that," Morgan said. "Zines are very DIY (do-it-yourself), made and shared by community members who otherwise are often a little bit marginalized. It's a way for people to make their voices heard in a sphere that can be a little bit harder to break into."
In order to celebrate all things zine and other short literature, Morgan wrote a grant and received funding from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council to host a zine festival, which they titled "Scribes and Vibes." The celebration in the Zeitgeist Atrium, 222 E. Superior St., at noon on Saturday, Nov. 23, will feature short literary forms from individuals and groups alongside experimental music, improvisation and spoken word performances. Morgan has helped organize zines for the Duluth Superior Pride Festival and the Duluth Poetry Chapter and has created their own pieces to distribute and share.
"I really love events, performances and experiences that have space for a bit of magic to happen. During shows or performances where I know exactly what notes to play, my lines, or everything is pre-planned, there can be a predictability that becomes boring," Morgan said. "Improvisational spaces, ones with experimental music, zine trading and community coming together, allows for unexpected connections, sounds or creativity to take place. And I love that about shows or events that have built-in room to shape or morph as they need to."
One element of the event that Morgan said they were looking forward to is a projection project by Duluth Poetry Chapter secretary Robert Wildwood. Wildwood plans to project scrolling poems on a large screen in one of the windows of the Zeitgiest building to allow passersby to read and experience the event.
"I'm really interested in getting poetry out to people that normally wouldn't approach it themselves, or go to the library or find a book of poetry in a bookstore. So I've put books out for free, out in nature, like on bus stop benches, just so somebody can randomly find them and maybe enjoy it," Wildwood said. "It's the same kind of thing with projecting on the window. Someone could be walking by, see the scrolling poem and read the whole thing and experience something and have their eyes open to a different way of expression."
Wildwood said he thought the project fit in well with the theme of zines because it also gets art out to members of the public in a unique way. His work as a poet is currently set to be included in the projection project and in the Duluth Poetry Chapter's collective zine titled "Freshwater Feral."
Zines aren't a new concept to poet and DPC member Anastasia Bamford. Bamford recalls getting involved with a few zines in the '70s and '80s. They said that the appeal of zines for them was the independence they provided.
"I had a friend who worked in, like a Kinkos, who let me in the back door in the middle of the night, and we printed off like 40 copies of a bunch of poetry," Bamford said. "It's fabulous to see them come back. I love to see this wild creativity that seems to be just blossoming."
Zines can be a creative outlet for people like Zainab Thompson, another zine creator to be featured at the event, who worked in a pediatric mental care unit. She started playing a game with the patients where she'd have a child give her a word, and she'd make a little book based on their suggestions and pass them out around the ward.
"It was a nice way for me to continue to draw during a time when I wasn't prioritizing it," Thompson said. "I left that unit for graduate school in August and I had a coworker who encouraged me to share the little books I made."
Thompson reached out for advice from a zine creator in the Twin Cities who encouraged her to make more and apply for the Midwest Queer and Transgender Zine Festival in October, where she met Morgan. Morgan traveled down to trade zines and gather inspiration for the local festival.
"It was something that I started just for a way of connecting with the kids on my unit, but now I get to trade zines with other people and connect to a greater community, off of a silly impromptu project that I just did to draw more," Thompson said.
The freedom for zines to fill a niche for either the creator or the larger community is something that Morgan is looking to celebrate. Another creator set to be at the zine fest is Kristi Olson, the Twin Ports creator of the On the Record zine, which gets the word out about shows and art happenings in the two cities. Olson, a sound engineer, started the zine a little over a year and a half ago in order to fill the void left by the Transistor shutting down.
"I've had times where I'm at all these shows, and sometimes no one would know about them, and they'd be so empty," Olson said. "It seems we were really missing that connector, that resource to get the word out about arts happenings."
Olson prints around 560 copies and distributes them to 65 locations around Duluth and Superior. She said part of their appeal is the tactile nature of the zine.
"There's something about picking up a physical piece of media that just invites conversation, invites energy into a community," Olson said. "It's not quite like huddling around an iPhone, there's a different energy with physical media that invites you to sit down and talk about it. That's why it's so cool to see more of zines popping up out there. I'm excited to meet those involved."
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own zines to swap, even if it's just a single poem on a sheet of paper, according to Morgan. Scribes and Vibes runs from noon to 6 p.m. and is free to attend.
