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On August 9th of this year, I vended at my first ever zine fest, Unfold! It was held at Granderson Lab in Belmont, a small town in Trinidad and Tobago (my home country).
I was invited to this event by my art teacher from secondary school, Raquel. I was then able to meet up with several other local zinesters. We got to know each other and discuss what projects we were working on for the event!
With the help and support of everyone from Alice Yard (@aliceyardinsta) and the Unfold gang, I was able to print several copies of some of my zines to distribute. "XXXENO Blue", "How to Piss" and "I Used to Be an Anti, But Then I Grew Up!" were the ones I chose, primarily because of their importance for the overall message I wanted to share.
Those familiar with the situation regarding Itch.io and Steam will know of the deindexing of thousands of adult works due to pressure from payment processors and faux-progressive groups like Collective Shout. "I Used to Be an Anti" in particular got taken down from Itch during the initial ban wave a few weeks ago.
My zines are currently on thin ice on Itch.io, but at Unfold? They were not only free from online censorship, but were all well received by those who read them! I was initially nervous about how they could have been received due to their subject matter, so I was happy to see that people liked them!
The venue was packed with people coming in to have a good time. There was an activity table where people could sit down and make their own zines! It was especially popular with the kids. That table and my own were stationed on the far opposite ends of the room, so thankfully I barely had worry about kids coming across my zines. There was a clear table showcasing an archive of older local zines next to the activity table, too. A live band called "Midnight Robber" played later in the evening, and there was a mini radio show that Kriston (@Toofpress) was hosting, where he interviewed a few zinesters.
It was also a blast trading zines with everyone else! I got a huge haul of zines from the event that I've been reading through. I would like to go through a few of these zines to give a little taste of the wide range of topics they collectively cover.
Raquel/Trinidada's Postal Art project archived hundreds of beautiful postcard self-portraits from around the world!
Neala Luna's (@nealaluna) short story "Jumbie Daddy" was a beautifully written and sad short story about a nasty divorce from the perspective of a child.
All 3 issues of Spec* (@spec.zine), which can be read online here, were filled to the brim with gorgeous local art and poems tackling societal issues in our Trinbagonian culture. Police corruption, the commodification of Carnival, different perspectives on death and departure, etc. Issue 2 in particular broke my heart with some of those stories. They were beautiful.
My friend Shannon/Ghosty (@its.ghosty.bro) pairred her gorgeous, edgy graphic designs with her soulful poems about the pain of heartbreak after love in her zines, Halfway to Something and Consequence of Hope. I also got some lovely posters from her! (Her works can be read online here)
And Renee (@anugrahayogatt, a local yoga instructor, wrote some very educational zines about the importance of yoga for physical and mental health!
There's also a documentary about this event, thanks to Karavan Media! Some of us were interviewed and got an opportunity to briefly discuss our projects. I show up around the 2:00 mark to showcase my projects and discuss why I think zines are important.
That's it for this year's UN|Fold, which was an amazing experience that introduced me to my country's local indie publishing scene. It was great meeting all these local zinesters and artists, and I hope that there are many more UN|Folds and other zine events to come! I also hope that this year's event encourages more local creators to come out and share their works!
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