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Events Tue Apr 02 2013
Newberry Library celebrates zine culture, past and present
If you missed the Chicago Zine Fest last month, don't despair. The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., is hosting two programs this spring to help quench your thirst for underground, dissident and alternative publishing.
"Outsiders: Zines, Samizdat and Alternative Publishing" is a free panel discussion on Saturday, April 6 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Focusing on self-produced books and pamphlets that express individualized, unconventional, controversial, or prohibited messages, the panel will include alt publishing heavy hitters Anne Elizabeth Moore (New Girl Law: Drafting a Future for Cambodia), Lisa Gitelman (Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture) and Jenna Freedman (Pinko vs. Punk: a Generational Comparison of Alternative Press Publications and Zines), among others. Coffee will be provided, and Quimby's will be selling DIY and other alt press materials.
After the discussion, explore the historical roots of zine culture with the Newberry's "Politics, Piety, and Poison," an exhibition of French pamphlets from 1600-1800, through April 13. A highlight of the exhibit is a series of engraved scenes that depicts the crimes, trial and eventual execution of a Parisian grocer accused of poisoning the wife and son of an associate. This 18th century "zine" is a graphic depiction of a sensational case that captivated all of Paris. Mon dieu!
If you can't make it to the Newberry, you can view a digital version of the exhibit here. Also through April 13 is "My Life is an Open Book: Do It Yourself Autobiography" at the Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery in the University of Chicago Library, 1100 East 57th St.
