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Category: discussion
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Zine Club Chicago: An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping Collective Reading and Zinemaking Workshop, March 15th!
Zine Club Chicago: An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping Collective Reading and Zinemaking Workshop
3 p.m. Saturday, March 15, 2025
Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave.
Free!This month, Zine Club Chicago is thrilled to welcome our friends at Thick Press for a celebration of their new book, An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping!
From “abundance” to “zinemaking,” An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping invites the reader to wander through a collection of interconnected entries on helping and healing by over 200 contributors from the worlds of social work and family therapy; art and design; body work and witchery; organizing and education; and more. Privileging co-construction over diagnosis, wisdom over evidence, collective healing over individual curejuyet, always blurring categories and embracing contradictions — this world-making collection reveals a pluriverse of helping practices grounded in love and freedom.
Please join us for Zine Club Chicago: An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping Collective Reading and Zinemaking Workshop, 3 p.m. Saturday, March 15, 2025 right here at our shop, 1854 W. North Ave. in Wicker Park. Free!
Erin Segal and Chris Hoff, two of the editors of An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping, will be joining us, and contributors to the book will read selections from their entries. Our readers include Zine Club Chicago producer Cynthia E. Hanifin, Neil Horsky, and Noriko Martinez.
Zine Club Chicago also be hosting a zinemaking workshop, and you’re all invited to make a mini zine about your own radical helping and collective care practices! No prior zinemaking experience necessary.
All zinemaking materials will be provided. Please note that event seating is limited, and will be first-come, first-served. Zine Club Chicago is a mask-supportive environment; masks will be provided if you’d like to wear one.
About Thick Press: Care-givers, justice-seekers, and community-builders often find ourselves in the thick of human experience. Yet so many of the texts we produce rely on the thin logic of Western medicine and mainstream social science! What might happen if we grounded more texts in the arts? In critical theories? In spirituality? In lived experience? What might happen if we paid more attention to medium, form, and design?
Enter Thick Press, a collaboration between a social worker (Erin Segal) and a designer (Julie Cho).
We aspire to a practice that is loving, reflexive, playful, and collaborative. We worry about reproducing oppressive structures, but we’re not really that interested in critique. Above all, we want to make unusual books with others.
Inspired by artists’ books and zines, Thick Press publishes books that cross genres and disciplines. All our books relate to working or living in the thick of human experience.
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck is the creative force behind our visuals, and she also made the Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.
Facebook event is here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago
Image description: A colorful infographic flyer designed by Julie Cho that features the cover of the book An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping, with text that reads: “An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping Collective Reading and Zinemaking Workshop; Zine Club Chicago at Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave., Chicago IL 60622; Saturday, March 15, 3pm CST; For more information visit quimbys.com”
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Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel + Zinemaking Workshop, Nov. 19th!
Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel + Zinemaking Workshop
3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19
Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave.
Free!This month, Zine Club Chicago is excited to welcome five of our favorite local zinemakers for a panel and zinemaking workshop! Moderator Jamie Kadas and panelists Katie Armentrout, Jude R. Bettridge, Megan Kirby, and Andrea Pearson will discuss how they explore experiences and emotions regarding their own bodies in their work. A generative workshop for folks who’d like to make a zine about their own bodies will follow the panel.
Join us in person for Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel + Zinemaking Workshop, 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19 at our shop. Free!
Zine Club Chicago will supply all the zinemaking materials and provide a list of prompts, and also will have snacks on hand, as always!
Please note that our discussion will include words and images that are appropriate for folks 18 and older only.
Zine Club Chicago is a mask-supportive environment; we’ll have masks available if you’d like to wear one.
Jamie Kadas uses personal experiences to create comics that focus on body image, anxiety, and all her fat girl insecurities. Additionally, she creates curvy pin-ups that reimagine pop culture in a more inclusive light.
Katie Armentrout gives voice to the everyday and spotlights the extraordinary in the lives of fat babes who radiate confidence and charisma. Katie’s work is a testament to the power of embracing one’s own uniqueness and finding beauty in the horror of daily existence.
Jude R. Bettridge is a jack-of-all-trades artist based in Chicago who specializes in zinemaking, fiber arts, and printmaking. Their work is a conglomeration of themes that always touch on mental health and feature soft horror.
Megan Kirby is a writer, illustrator, and zinemaker who likes to make art about bodies, feelings, Chicago, and niche pop culture. She writes lots of fanzines, a long-running perzine called Coffee Spoons, and a graphic memoir called Another Day in Paradise that came out in 2022.
Andrea Pearson is the Chicago cartoonist behind the comic zine series No Pants Revolution. She also runs the small press comic and art zine distro Aquatic Panda.
Online friends, Zine Club Chicago will be back on Zoom with y’all in December for a year-end celebration of zinemaking! More info coming soon.
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free monthly event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.
Facebook event link here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago
Image description #1: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with a black-and-white drawing by Jude R. Bettridge of front and back views of two people’s nude bodies and lettering that reads “Bodies on the Page,” with flyer text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Panel and Zinemaking Workshop featuring moderator Jamie Kadas + panelists: Katie Armentrout, Jude R. Bettridge, Megan Kirby, and Andrea Pearson; 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Avenue in Wicker Park. Free! In Person!”
Image description #2: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with an abstract image of a human body, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel and Zinemaking Workshop featuring moderator Jamie Kadas + panelists: Katie Armentrout, Jude R. Bettridge, Megan Kirby, and Andrea Pearson; 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Avenue in Wicker Park. Free! In Person!”
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Zine Club Chicago Online: The Business of DIY — Conversation With Jenna Blazevich of Vichcraft, Tues. Oct 17th
Zine Club Chicago Online: The Business of DIY —
A Conversation with Jenna Blazevich of Vichcraft
7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, October 17 on the Quimby’s YouTube channel
Free!
This month, Zine Club Chicago is excited to welcome Jenna Blazevich of Vichcraft for a conversation about the business of DIY! Jenna, a local artist and chainstitcher, has channeled her DIY passions into one of Chicago’s most inventive independent businesses.
Want to know more about the nuts and bolts of making a living with your art while expressing your DIY values, building an indie business from the ground up, and forging successful partnerships with other creative folks? Jenna will discuss all this and more — including how her secondhand risograph printer was a major score — in conversation with Zine Club Chicago producer Cynthia E. Hanifin.
Please join us for Zine Club Chicago Online: The Business of DIY — A Conversation with Jenna Blazevich of Vichcraft at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, Oct. 17 on the Quimby’s Bookstore YouTube channel. No need to RSVP – just head over to YouTube.com/QuimbysBookstore.
Do you have questions for Jenna? Please email them to us in advance at zineclubchicago@gmail.com or join the YouTube chat during the event to take part in the Q&A segment of the discussion.
Vichcraft recently collaborated with us to create some special merch for our 32nd anniversary! You can check out the limited-edition t-shirt and more here: Quimby’s x Vichcraft
Vichcraft is the independent and collaborative, multi-disciplinary studio of Jenna Blazevich.
Since being founded in 2015, Vichcraft has steadily been building a collection of social-issue driven projects made with various tactile handcraft mediums. Currently there is a focus on creating embroidery work using a 100 year old hand-cranked machine, lettering design collaborations with socially-conscious companies, and conceptual stained glass.
Vichcraft strives to work right around the line between art, craft, and design to create historically-informed work that provokes new ways of thinking.
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago, the city’s only book club-style event for people who read zines. This free monthly series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.
Facebook link here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago
Image description: A red-blue-and-grey infographic flyer with a photo of Jenna Blazevich of Vichcraft holding one of her birds, a background featuring photos of several of Vichcraft’s designs, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: The Business of DIY Edition — A Conversation With Jenna Blazevich of Vichcraft; Online! Free! More info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023; YouTube.com/QuimbysBookstore”
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Jeremy Kitchen Discusses Mr. Crabby You Have Died with Kirin Wachter-Grene, Oct 14th
JEREMY KITCHEN
discusses his new book
MR. CRABBY YOU HAVE DIED
with literary scholar
KIRIN WACHTER-GRENE
Saturday, October 14th, 7pm
Free Event at Quimby’s Bookstore
Mr. Crabby You Have Died is the first full-length work by Jeremy Kitchen — a public librarian, former dope fiend, and U.S. Army artillery observer in Desert Storm. Swaying between memoir and fiction, Kitchen lays bare his world through a series of interlocking exorcisms that deny linear time and good taste. Lost years in the Sarin-laced Persian Gulf drift backwards into Detroit’s acid trash landscape, only to corkscrew forward again into a seemingly endless Chicago night of heroin, handguns, and idiot pranksterism.
Comic as it is horrifying, Mr. Crabby You Have Died is a collection of parables about the stupid beauty of youth, the boredom of addiction, and the intensity of dreams.
On Saturday nite, October 14th, Kitchen will discuss all things Mr. Crabby with Kirin Wachter-Grene, a writer and scholar based in Chicago. Wachter-Grene is Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches classes on literature, history, and gender & sexuality studies.
Mr. Crabby You Have Died has been published by First To Knock out of Michigan City, Indiana. First To Knock titles have been featured in outlets such as Los Angeles Review of Books, Hermitix, CrimeReads, The Washington Post, Apocalypse Confidential, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Cinepunx, Tulsa Public Radio/NPR, KCRW Los Angeles, and Weird History. Chris Via of Leaf by Leaf has called First To Knock “one of my favorite presses.”
For more info: www.firsttoknock.com
Facebook event link here.
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Zine Club Chicago Online: Fest Finds Edition with Special Guest Co-host Jordan Sea of Sonoma County Zine Club, June 20th!
Zine Club Chicago Online: Fest Finds Edition
With Special Guest Co-host Jordan Sea of Sonoma County Zine Club
7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, June 20 on Zoom
Free!Zine fest season is in full swing, so this month Zine Club Chicago is inviting y’all to share your fave finds from Chicago Zine Fest, CAKE, and other in-person and online events that center self-publishers. We’re super excited to welcome a special guest co-host, Jordan Sea of Sonoma County Zine Club, to give us a West Coast perspective on the return of zine fests around the country!
Grab the best zines you’re scooped up at recent festivals, BYOS(nacks), and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Fest Finds Edition with Special Guest Co-host Jordan Sea of Sonoma County Zine Club at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, June 20!
** RSVP required ** We want to make sure that our online Zine Club Chicago events are a safe space, so we won’t be releasing the Zoom link publicly. If you’d like to attend, please email zineclubchicago@gmail.com to RSVP by 9 p.m. CT Monday, June 19 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, June 20.
Observer, contemplative, seeking engrossment, zinester, mom, following too many podcasts. Jordan Sea has been a fan of zine culture for 20 years but only started writing Rain Barrel in 2020. Out of a deep longing for Chicago’s zine community and with a desire to enliven zine culture and find other zinesters near them, they began the Sonoma County Zine Club in 2022. Jordan sells their own zines and those of their family on their Etsy store. Their writing has appeared in Snax and Behind the Zines, with their latest Rain Barrel issue featured in Anna Jo Beck’s Zine-A-Month. You can also find Jordan on Instagram at @rainbarrelzine.
Sonoma County Zine Club is a collaborative space to create and share zines in community. Activities are usually informal, open for folks to work on whatever they wish. Different art supplies are provided, like markers, tape, scissors, rubber stamps, glue sticks, paper, and more! Occasionally a collaborative zine is made on a particular topic. The library provides the space and fun snacks! Sonoma County Zine Club meets on the first Tuesday night of the month at 6 p.m. at the Sebastopol Regional Library in Sebastopol, CA.
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago, the city’s only book club-style event for people who read zines. This free monthly series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.
More info at quimbys.com and on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago. Facebook link here.
Image description #1: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the crowd photo from Chicago Zine Fest 2023, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Fest Finds Edition with Special Guest Co-host Jordan Sea of Sonoma County Zine Club; Online! Free! Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 25, 2023”
Image description #2: A photo of zinemaker Jordan Sea, who is smiling and has pink and black hair and rhinestone-studded cats-eye glasses.
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Zine Club Chicago Online: Riotous Zines Edition, April 25th!
Zine Club Chicago Online: Riotous Zines Edition
7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 25 on Zoom
Free!From snarky observations and arch takes to wacky puns and sight gags, zines make excellent vehicles for all kinds of humor. This month, we’ll be discussing — and cracking up about — our favorite titles that make us smirk, giggle, and LOL!
Grab the funniest zines in your collection, BYOS(ense)O(f)H(umor), and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Riotous Zines Edition at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 25!
** RSVP required ** We want to make sure that our online Zine Club Chicago events are a safe space, so we won’t be releasing the Zoom link publicly. If you’d like to attend, please email zineclubchicago@gmail.com to RSVP by 9 p.m. CT Monday, April 24 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, April 25.
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago, the city’s only book club-style event for people who read zines. This free monthly series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.
More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago. Facebook event here.
Image description: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the cartoon image of a person laughing with their mouth wide open, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Riotous Zines Edition; Online! Free! Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 25, 2023”
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Zine Club Chicago In Person: Chicago Stories Edition, March 24th!
Zine Club Chicago IN PERSON: Chicago Stories Edition
7-9 p.m. CT Friday, March 24
Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave
Free!The big-shouldered metropolis we call home has inspired countless self-publishers, so this month Zine Club Chicago is celebrating zines about Chicago! We’ll be bringing back our discussion-meets-show-and-tell format for this in-person gathering, so please bring your favorite Chicago zines to share.
Join us for Zine Club Chicago In Person: Chicago Stories Edition at 7-9 p.m. Friday, March 24 here at the shop, 1854 W. North Avenue in Wicker Park. We’ll have snacks on hand! Masks are strongly encouraged when you’re not noshing.
Out-of-town friends, Zine Club Chicago will be back on Zoom with y’all in April! If you’d like to get together virtually with zine pals in March, check out Zine Party!, hosted by Michael Verdi, at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, March 14. For more info and the Zoom link, visit next.zine.party
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago, the city’s only book club-style event for people who read zines. This free monthly series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.
More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago. Facebook event here.
Image description: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with an image of the Chicago skyline and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Chicago Stories Edition; In Person! Free!; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave. in Wicker Park; 7-9 p.m. CT Friday, March 24, 2023”
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Zine Club Chicago Online: Show Us Your Stacks Edition, Feb. 21st!
Zine Club Chicago Online: Show Us Your Stacks Edition
7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, February 21 on Zoom
Free!Whenever we ask folks which subjects they’d like to discuss at our events, zine organization tops the list. So in February, we’re bringing back our popular Show Us Your Stacks theme for the third year in a row!
This month, we’ll be meeting on Zoom so y’all can show off how you organize the zines you choose to bring home with you. Whether you meticulously catalogue your zines, toss them in random piles, or something in between, we want to know about the ways you arrange, display, and categorize your personal collection.
Get your self-published stash in order (or leave it messy), BYOS(nacks), and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Show Us Your Stacks Edition at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, February 21 on Zoom!
** RSVP required ** We want to make sure that our online Zine Club Chicago events are a safe space, so we won’t be releasing the Zoom link publicly. If you’d like to attend, please email zineclubchicago@gmail.com to RSVP by 9 p.m. CT Monday, February 20 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, February 21.
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago, the city’s only book club-style event for people who read zines. This free monthly series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.
More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago. Facebook event here.
Image description: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the image of mini zines tucked into plastic sleeves inside a binder, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Show Us Your Stacks Edition; Online! Free! Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, February 21”
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Sam Kunkel Discusses Gustave Kahn’s The Solar Circus With Jeremy Kitchen at Quimby's on Feb 18th
Quimby’s welcomes translator Sam Kunkel, who will discuss the great forgotten Symbolist masterpiece The Solar Circus with Chicago author and critic Jeremy Kitchen on Saturday, Feb 18th at 3pm in the afternoon.
Gustave Kahn’s The Solar Circus is an 1898 French novel dripping in psychedelic images of exotic gemstones, merfolk, and phantasmagoric menageries. Inverting day for night and reality for a dazzling dream, this is the story of a solipsistic Bavarian count who falls in love with the star of a traveling circus—thereby forcing him out of self-imposed seclusion. As the lovers set out from the count’s castle, they encounter a world in transformation: peasants in rebellion, the bright lights of London’s Orpheum theater, and even an ether-swilling Jack the Ripper in an opium den. In the process, the count must come to grips with his own fragile notions of superiority and truth.
The Solar Circus is text unlike any other, one that vacillates effortlessly between wild, imagistic poetry and philosophical prose, prefiguring those seminal 20th century works of Modernist literature which would appear more than two decades later.
The Solar Circus is being published by Michigan City-based First to Knock. Its publication will mark not only the novel’s first appearance in English but also its first independent reissue since it was published in 1898. The novel has been newly translated by Sam Kunkel, a Paris-based, Chicago-born scholar of 19th century Symbolist literature.
Kunkel will discuss Kahn’s novel and its place in the lineage of circus books with Chicago’s very own Jeremy Kitchen—author, literary critic, and librarian. A Q&A will follow. Books will be for sale.
For more info:
info(at)firsttoknock(dot)com
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CHIPRC’s Zine Club: Made in Chicago Edition, at Quimby’s! March 26th
In March, our husky, brawling metropolis turns 182, and we’re celebrating by exploring zines made in Chicago! This month at our book club-style event for people who read zines, we’ll be talking about our favorite titles that were created right here in the city that is second to none when it comes to self-publishing. Local zinemakers, please bring one of your own zines to share! Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are welcome to join us for a fun discussion and snacks.If you’d like to participate in our Mystery Zine Swap, bring a zine (concealed in some way) to trade with someone else on the spot!
This event will be led by Chicago Zine Fest organizer Cynthia E. Hanifin.
CHIPRC’s Zine Club: Made in Chicago Edition, at Quimby’s!
7 p.m. Tuesday, March 26
Quimby’s, 1854 W. North Avenue in Wicker Park
Free
