First Drafts Get a Second Chance
Starting Out
When I first started out making zines, I had rapid-fire ideas and my execution was almost compatible. But it started to slow as I became exasperated with the designs not quite coming out as I’d hoped (and yes, I work with the “happy accidents”, but if it wasn’t part of the plan, then to a certain degree, it’s wrong!)
A couple of pro-tips I learned along the way:
1. I didn’t need to draw my “bleed borders”. After the first few, I could gauge how much space to leave for the text/ colors so they weren’t cut off.
2. I always start off in pencil, but when I’m ready to add color, I print a copy to test combos and make pivots. Then, I can confidently add the final additions to the original (if I know I don’t want varying colors, which I experienced later on in the journey).
The original drafts are from early 2023, and their updated versions are from September 2024. I was inspired to revisit and remodel them for Queen City Zine Fest, so I could have multiple examples of my passion + my progress. There were some unforeseen printing problems that caused me to limit how many were reconstructed and printed.
Ask a Black Creative to Discuss (Vol. 1: Gold Mouf Book Club)
I’d been following Gold Mouf on Instagram for a little while, and I wanted to get to know the brain behind the Book Club. I was graciously granted a zoom interview with Deinrene, an educator at the time, who like me, was transitioning away from the classroom. He’s not only a voracious reader & revolutionary for the Black and African diaspora, but he’s also a musical mastermind by the name of Saint Pianoman. Multiple projects are ready to accompany the radical evolution of your rage.
Volume 2 featured Nostalgic Black Girl, who I found on Youtube while searching for the Alternative and/or Awkward Black Girls (such lame descriptors for ourselves in hindsight). She brings so much joy to my Insta feed with her cosplays, which I tried to capture in a zine but made way too large to copy…then never returned to the drafting board (hence why ABCD has had “conceptual reconstruction”.
{Pro-tip: Construction paper is best used for constructing elements of a zine, but not the zine itself unless it’s cut to size. Also great if you want colored backgrounds + flexible paper to manage.}
Album of an Adolescence
Raise your hand if you love Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist!!!
Raise your hand if you were a Grooveshark or Pandora kid!!!
Before I found the obscure groovy indie corners of Youtube (raise your hand if you miss music from 2009-2013!!! And didn’t find the dark side of Youtube til college!!!) I was mostly a Radio Disney/Nickelodeon kid. Needless to say, my music taste is why I so frequently heard “Oreo” and “White Girl”. I’ll never stand by anyone who thinks only white people have a range of music to enjoy. I know I was grooving then, I still jam to most of those songs now, and I’ll likely never only surrender to a couple of genres, let alone the stereotypical two.
I’d happily make mixtapes if those were still a thing; I did actually burn CDs after making playlists on Windows Media Player (real recognize real), but remembered I couldn’t sell them and most people don’t have access to CD-Roms anymore, so I just dropped them off in Little Free Libraries. (I had 7 - peep the covers <3 - but I can’t remember which playlists were duplicates.)
Mindful Mantras & Messages
The Loaded Chamber of Reflection was the larger focus; I planned to be quite detailed with how astrology would apply to each user. But thinking of the guide in the hands of someone unaware of their birth chart, and further unable or unwilling to chart it, this abridged version was born.
A pocketsize guide to mediating your energy and redirecting your perspectives, without the help of the stars. For anyone interested in the full concept, of course, you can check out more in this post or in Human Resources.
Tweenkle Star
This may still be in the drafts, actually. I maintain the sentiments of the poem, but I don’t quite care for this as a one-off thing - like what if this was just the opening page of each edition, and I turned this into a reoccuring magazine? I’ve already decided to make my version of Girl’s Life, applicable to little black girls like me who have 4-something hair and aren’t allowed to play with make-up (even if it came from Claire’s) because it’s too grown. That was gonna be BLKALTxine, but I wanted that to have a balance of activities & articles, kinda like a Highlights magazine.
Lots of decisions, TBD. No further comments.
