Zine Release, Paper Zines, Zine Fest, oh my!

Hello!

Jelly of all trades back again to share Artistic Apothecary’s most recent zine: Rest As Reparations. Written by our Founding Steward kuwa jaisiri, Rest As Reparations invites and explores ways that our bodies, minds, spirits, relationships, and growth asks for, requires, and flourish in Rest. Most importantly, the Rest As Reparations zine recenters the conversation around Rest within the context of racial reckoning and remedy.

Rest As Reparations 2023 Zine Cover - 3 Afro folks with varying skin tones and painted faces. An Afro being rests while in a greenhouse. A pink candle is lit. — Rest As Reparations 2023 Zine Cover – 3 Afro folks with varying skin tones and painted faces. An Afro being rests while in a greenhouse. A pink candle is lit.

To meaningfully take part in racial remedy, it is necessary for settlers, particularly European settlers, to ensure rest for African families who have been impacted by the Trans-Atlantic slave, as well as ongoing anti-Black racism embedded in colonial systems, structures, values, and behaviour. The Reparations as Rest zine is a call to action for the well-being of our selves and, for those of us with European ancestry (myself included), a call to action for the well-being of those whose lack of rest (i.e. coercive, underpaid, and undervalued work) we benefit from.

You can find:
the readable PDF version for Rest as Reparations here
the printable PDF for Rest as Reparations here
the lyrics for the list of Reparations songs included in the zine here

Personally, I have been making zines since I learned about them in 2017. Back then, I helped create the imagery for the Anti-Violence Project’s Healing Zine, dedicated to those who have experienced harm. Since then, I co-founded Neartown, a collaborative zine currently on hiatus, which engaged speculative and science fiction narratives to explore non-carceral forms of justice. Coincidentally, the theme of Neartown’s third and final issue was Rest, inviting submissions that engaged and explored rest in relationship to justice.

a cartoon version of kuwa jasiri in a pink dress with the bold words MY ZINES. A background of wheel flowers with leaves.

In another coincidence, Neartown’s first issue was created during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, at which point the Canzine Festival of Zines was moved online. It was through this online zine event that I was introduced to Artistic Apothecary. I had purchased their Digital Zine Bundle and joined their email list after receiving the Bundle. I began following Artistic Apothecary’s work, and eventually received their email looking for a Community Researcher, which has brought me to writing this post!

Each phase, connection, or new thing we try, is only a seed or path stone toward something larger – and often we do not comprehend what that will be. This includes Rest. What new (or forgotten) interest, capacity, idea, feeling opens up when we rest? What can we open up in others by offering rest?

Glass jar with long skinny neck holds dirt, a red rose flowering, and a leafy plant in water. Publishing Apothecary is dancing font.

If you are based in Pueblo Territory ‘Albuquerque’ and are curious about zines and the connections you might make through zines, check out ABQ Zine Fest on October 7th at Explora!

here are the links to our PAPER ZINES at Brown Recluse Distro for sale, 3.88$-6.88$.

~ https://www.brownreclusezinedistro.com/shop/p/first-aide-to-face-adversity

~ https://www.brownreclusezinedistro.com/shop/p/dine-our-survival-is-bound-to-theirs

~ https://www.brownreclusezinedistro.com/shop/p/beautifully-brown-that-is-me

~ https://www.brownreclusezinedistro.com/shop/p/sacred-land

Seed Keeping

https://www.brownreclusezinedistro.com/shop/p/self-care-the-only-way-is-through

Birds, Bees and Beyond