#phags

PHAGS ISSUE #2: Headspace

Part of our artistic process of creating “Headspace” included taking a closer look at our own bedrooms—how they can function as a physical representation of what goes on inside our heads, what it means to decorate a space that is fully ours, how to balance aesthetics with comfort and functionality, how to find ourselves within a space and find a space within ourselves, etc.

PHAGAZINE ISSUE 0 - WHO TF ARE THESE PHAGS?

PHAGAZINE ISSUE 1 - We are fucking QUEER!

For context, here is a little introduction to the world of PHAGS, featuring excerpts PHAGS submitted for a book documenting the following project:

“Queer Stories Now is an after school arts program for queer teens. Students explore themes of identity, LGBTQ+ history, and self expression through zines. A book documenting this project will be released in the late summer or early fall of 2025, including work by the students and writing by members of the community. This book and these first sessions of QSN were made possible by ArtsBloom, funded through the City of Rochester Percent for the Arts Program.”

P is for Party, Physicality, Process, and Praxis

As queer people, it’s important that we mark our existence on the world. Our experiences, our stories, our love, our art—they are all so important in reminding those after us that we were here and will always be here, as those before us have done as well.

The process of physical creation grounds us in our roots, our community. To create art is to reflect your lived experience outside of yourself. Exchanging zines is an interpersonal and direct action in which you share your experience with someone else. It’s vulnerable—it opens you to conversation and community. A shared headspace is created in this exchange, even if only for a few moments, and in the physical world, you are connected through the exchange of art.

H is for Home

Anything created with the goal of it being a home can be a home.

It feels intimidating to want to start something, but you can start small! PHAGS was founded by a few friends in college as a party project, and then it expanded into a creative art collective. PHAGS is a way for us to stay engaged with our creativity as we navigate the workforce and young adulthood, and a way for us to encourage others to connect with their creativity as well.

A is for Accessibility, Actualization, Artists

You may consider yourself the “capital A” Artist, or the “lowercase a” artist; the former being the career creative who sees art as their life’s purpose and passion; the latter, being someone who may more amateurly (for the lack of a better word) play in the artistic realm at their leisure. Either way, art is something you can just do. It is for everybody. You have to make it accessible for yourself—or better yet, for others too.

G is for Graph

S is for Synthesis

PHAGAZINE Issue #0