go it alone (together) SALE!

Working Together: Artist In Residence Closing Reception

Above: Photo courtesy of Nick Carroll, Snapd Windsor

Snapd Windsor captures a few workshop participants with artist in residence, Emily Davidson (far right) for the closing reception of Davidson’s Workshops & Residence.

Davidson hails from Halifax in part with Neighborhood Spaces. She spent the past 6 weeks in Windsor engaging the community with demonstrations, workshops & discussions at the Windsor Workers Education Centre & Windsor Printmaker’s Forum.

The works from these screen printing & letterpress series can currently be seen at the ACWR Art speak Gallery @ 1942 Wyandotte St. E.

For a full schedule of Neighbourhood Spaces Artists In Residence visit the blog at http://acwr.net/our-programs-services/ns/ !

A flyer from the Letterpress Workshop held at the Windsor Printmakers Forum as a part of the Neighbourhood Spaces Program. 

Windsor Printmakers Forum Director, Patricia Cotes printed GMO codons for corn on burlap sacks and tags at the Letterpress Workshops. 

Windsor Printmakers Forum Director, Patricia Cotes printed GMO codons for corn on burlap sacks and tags, displayed in a surveyors tool kit. 

LET’S WORK TOGETHER: Conversations With Windsorites On Art & Labour. A Zine produced by resident artist, Emily Davidson during her stay in Windsor. Stop into the Gallery to grab of this Zine or one of Emily’s prints for free!

A compilation of participants works for recent & previous workshops.

I’m so please to have my new printed matter work Austerity Rules in This for That at Malapina Printmakers. I’m exhibiting alongside my long-time political art mentors Garry Neill Kennedy and Cathy Busby and that feels really special.

I got back late last night from an East Coast vacation, which included an arduous but rewardingly beautiful hiking trip in Gaspésie, then a road trip down to SappyFest in Sackville, New Brunswick.  I had heard much about SappyFest from friends who have been involved with it for many years.  The 2013 edition was the festival’s eighth year, and my first time there.  In addition to lots of music, tasty eats, activities such as an artistic mini-putt course in Struts Gallery, SappyFest also includes a tiny, adorable zine fair.  I was stoked to get a chance to check out some East Coast zines.  I picked up three zines from Go It Alone (Together), a dream team of two Halifax zinesters, Emily Davidson  and Kaley Kennedy. I’ll be writing about their zines today. Looking at the website for their distro, all of their stuff looks super rad.  Titles include Ladies, Please!, which is about how non-trans women can make feminist spaces more trans-positive, and A How-To Guide to Manarchy, a “satirical guide… for how to push feminists out of anarchist circles”.  I also got two issues of Photomill zine, which I will talk about another day. 

In other zine news, I also enjoyed the Universal Dawn event, a series of readings curated and hosted by my friend Ian Roy, which included readings by Jeff Miller of Ghost Pine zine, including one about my hometown, which was deeply pleasing to me.

I apologize if, after my hiatus, I’m a little rusty at this whole zine-reviewing thing.  I will be doing my best to get back on the horse. 

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The Homophobia Zine, or, Confessions of a Straight-Little-Square

by Emily Davidson, 2010

16 pg. at 1/6 (?) letter size

$2 from the authors

In this handsomely produced mini-zine, Davidson relates ways and situations where homophobia has gotten in the way of her committment to being an ally to queer pals, confessing, “When I think about this shit I wonder if I’m too homophobic to be rad”.  This zine is great in that it addresses a big topic using small, funny examples that show the scary but necessary process of confronting one’s own homophobia. 

On Not Being Queer

by Kaley Kennedy, 2009

16 pg. at 1/6 (?) letter size

$2 from the authors

This is a personal mini-zine about the writer’s uneasy relationship with queerness.  As someone who’s been romantically involved with people from various genders, she explains why she’s been ambivalent about identifying as queer.  I am always interested in reading about how people who are straight or benefit from straight privilege can be part of queer communities in a responsible way. 

On (Not) Being Queer (Enough)

by Kaley Kennedy, 2013

27 pg. at 1/6 (?) letter size

$2 from the authors

On (Not) Being Queer (Enough) is a follow-up to On Not Being Queer.  Four years out, Kennedy is more comfortable identifying as queer.  In this zine, she writes more about the political usefulness of queer identities, as well as talking about her own queer history.  I don’t want to say too much about this zine, since it’s short and I want you to still feel like you should buy a copy, but I thoroughly recommend it as a thoughtful, funny, insightful read.