September Updates
Hey Cyclistas!
It’s been a sporadic time at the zine after months of traveling to see family and friends. Trying to maintain a zine to be sustainable in this economy with all it’s labor and supply shortages has been challenging and doing this without the constant hustle of promoting zines, social media lives, workshops etc has impacted our ability to support our work. And in a way, I am grateful. To be honest, I think many of us have been extremely burned out. At least for me, the last two years of churning zine after zine and holding space for those very difficult but necessary conversations has left me feeling overwhelmed to campaign, support causes and people while holding it all together, which put my mental health at risk. Thankfully I have access to therapy that has been a huge help for me to slow down and process my experiences in this space while setting boundaries on my work-life balance. While zine making is my joyful activism and passion project, I too need breaks. With that said, things have been slower and I’m finding fulfillment in the things I enjoy doing again.
That’s a little about me lately but what about the zine? Well we do have an issue 7 coming this fall and of course I would love for any of you to contribute. See guidelines here. This zine theme topic is on JOY! Why, because we are in a time of political and climate chaos and practicing optimism and joy are radical acts of resistance. We need more joy so we can connect, community build and learn ways to be resilient.
Speaking of bicycle joy, I recently dropped Bike Talk perzine #2. You can check it out in the zine shop! I had a lot of fun putting this one together.
I am curious about your thoughts on what you would like to see from the zine. I’m open to sharing how I run the zine, workshops, making zines, content creation, to how I collaborate with others. I am willing to share more responses and insights about bicycle activism and organizing too. I’ve been thinking about working on some video content to share with ya’ll this off “bike season” and I have a few zine ideas I have brewing up to share with you. I know most of you are here for the zines, but what topics or ideas do you think would be good to share for this space? Feel free to share your feedback.
Always, thank you so much for your ongoing support. It’s good to be back.