Category: Store Events

  • Quimby’s June Newsletter Available Now

    Read it here and make sure you sign up to get it in your inbox at quimbys.com.

  • Zine Club Chicago Online: Pride Edition, June 25th

    Zine Club Chicago Online: Pride Edition
    7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, June 25 on Zoom
    Free!

    Happy Pride Month! In June, Zine Club Chicago will be celebrating zines created by LGBTQIA+ zinemakers, so bring your favorite self-published perzines, diary comics, radical treatises, how-to guides + more to discuss during the conversation! Queer zinemakers are especially encouraged to share their own work.

    Grab your fave queer zines to share, BYOG(ushers) and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Pride Edition at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, June 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 5 p.m. CT Monday, June 24 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT Tuesday, June 25.

    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.

    More info at the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    Facebook event invite link here.

    P.S. Thanks to everybody who came out to the May Zine Club Chicago meeting at Quimby’s with Alex O’Keefe of DnA Artists! Download the zine that everybody contributed to so that you can print and assemble it HERE!

    Image description: A rainbow version of the Zine Club Chicago logo, which features an illustration of a lightbulb with a zine inside of it.

  • South Side Zine Library Launch Party in Bridgeport, June 9th

    Zine Club Chicago is thrilled to announce the launch of a brand-new South Side Zine Library! This free community resource, stocked with zines of all kinds, will be permanently housed in the Community Room at the Richard J. Daley branch of the Chicago Public Library in Bridgeport.

    To celebrate, Zine Club Chicago is pairing up with the Blue Ribbon Glee Club to host a launch party featuring the intermittent reading and performance series Three Songs, plus an open mic and zinemaking!

    All are invited to the Zine Club Chicago South Side Zine Library Launch Party featuring Three Songs with the Blue Ribbon Glee Club on Sunday, June 9 at the Richard J. Daley branch of the Chicago Public Library, 3400 S. Halsted St. in Bridgeport. Zinemaking begins at 1 p.m.; the Three Songs readings and performance will start at 2 p.m. Free!

    For the Three Songs performance, a trio of featured readers will each share a story about one of the songs in the BRGC punk a capella repertoire, and then the group will sing it. The readers are:

    More info at quimbys.com and on the Zine Club Chicago socials: @zineclubchicago

    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 designs the monthly flyers and created the logo, and she also created the visuals for the South Side Zine Library.

    Zine Club Chicago would like to thank the South Side Zine Library sponsors: The Richard J. Daley branch of the Chicago Public Library + branch manager Jeremy Kitchen, Quimby’s Bookstore, Lucinda J. Williams, and Johnny Misfit.

    Want the Facebook Event Post for this? Go here!

    Want the CPL listing? Go here!

    Image description

    A flyer with an image of the Chicago skyline viewed from Palmisano Park in Bridgeport and this text: “Zine Club Chicago South Side Zine Library Launch Party! Featuring Three Songs with Blue Ribbon Glee Club; Readings by Nikki Roberts, Liz Olney, and Cynthia E. Hanifin; Punk a capella performance, open mic + zinemaking!: 1-4 p.m. Sunday, June 9; Richard J. Daley Branch, Chicago Public Library in Bridgeport; 3400 S. Halsted St.; More info: quimbys.com; Instagram: @zineclubchicago; chipublib.org

  • Quimby’s May Newsletter Available Now

    Read it here and make sure you sign up to get it in your inbox at quimbys.com.

  • Quimby's Offsite: Emil Ferris Discusses My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two at Harold Washington Library Center, June 5th

    Emil Ferris at the Harold Washington Library Center 
    400 S. State Street, Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, Lower Level
    Wednesday, June 5
    6pm–7pm

    Not at Quimby’s.

    The Chicago Public Library and Quimby’s welcome Emil Ferris to the Harold Washington Library Center to discuss her highly anticipated new book, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two. Emil Ferris will be in conversation with painter Kurt Devine.

    Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two is the eagerly awaited conclusion to the most acclaimed graphic novels of the past decade. Presented as the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes as she tries to solve the murder of her beloved and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold.

    In Book Two, dark mysteries past and present continue to abound in the tumultuous and violent Chicago summer of 1968. Young Karen attends the Yippie-organized Festival of Life in Grant Park and finds herself swept up in a police stomping. Privately, she continues to investigate Anka’s recent death and discovers one last cassette tape that sheds light upon Anka’s heroic activities in Nazi Germany. She wrestles with her own sexual identity, the death of her mother, and the secrets she suspects her brother Deez of hiding. Ferris’s exhilarating cast of characters experience revelations and epiphanies that both resolve and deepen the mysteries visited upon them eariler. Visually, the story is told in Ferris’ inimitable style that breathtakingly and seamlessly combines panel-to-panel storytelling and cartoon montages, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster mag iconography.

    My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two is part of the My Favorite Thing is Monsters series.

    Emil Ferris grew up in Chicago during the turbulent 1960s, where she still lives, and is consequently a devotee of all things monstrous and horrific. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Find her at on Patreon here – on IG @emilferris on Twitter @Emilferrisdraws

    How to Attend – In Person: Doors to the Auditorium open at 5:30 p.m., and seating is first come, first served (350 capacity). Quimby’s will be selling Emil’s book, and she’ll be available to autograph books at the conclusion of the program.

    How to Attend – Virtual: This event will also take place live on CPL’s YouTube channel and CPL’s Facebook page. You’ll be able to ask questions during the event as well! Can’t make it to the live stream? CPL will archive the video on YouTube to watch later.

    Accessibility: Need sign language interpretation or other accessibility assistance for this event? Please call (312) 747-8184 or email access@chipublib.org to request accommodations. Requests must be made at least 14 business days before the event.

    More info at the CPL Event Listing here.

    Facebook event listing here.

    Note this event is NOT at Quimby’s!

  • Zine Club Chicago: Folding Pages, Unfolding Lives – A Collaborative Perzine Workshop led by Alex O'Keefe, May 11th

    Zine Club Chicago: Folding Pages, Unfolding Lives –
    A Collaborative Perzine Workshop led by Alex O’Keefe
    3 p.m. Saturday, May 11
    Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave.
    Free!

    This month, Zine Club Chicago is excited to welcome special guest Alex O’Keefe of DnA Artists as we each share personal narratives to form a group perzine!

    Alex will walk participants through the process of creating a small auto-bio work (writing, drawing, collage — anything goes!) She’ll gather those stories to create an anthology zine, which everyone on the Zine Club Chicago Google group email list will receive for home printing after the event. A limited number of free print copies will also be made available at our shop (first-come, first-served).

    Please join us for Zine Club Chicago: Folding Pages, Unfolding Lives – A Collaborative Perzine Workshop led by Alex O’Keefe, 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11 at Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave. in Wicker Park. Free!

    We’ll provide zinemaking supplies and snacks. Zine Club Chicago is a mask-supportive environment; we’ll have masks available if you’d like to wear one. Please note that seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

    Alex O’Keefe (she/her) is a Chicago-based artist, librarian, and storyteller. Her creative work often takes the form of comics, drawings, fiber arts, zines, and book arts. She is 1/2 of DnA Artists, who make bite-sized, humorous, and often informative zines, prints, and paper goods with an illustrative and comics aesthetic.

     

    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: https://zineclubchicagoshoutouts.spread.name/

    More info at the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    Flyer design by Anna Jo Beck, featuring an illustration by Alex O’Keefe.
    Photo of Alex by Jamie Kelter Davis.

    Facebook event link is here.

    Image descriptions

    A red-and-blue infographic flyer featuring an illustration by Alex O’Keefe of a person wearing glasses and holding a zine, with text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Folding Pages, Unfolding Lives – A Collaborative Perzine Workshop led by Alex O’Keefe,; In Person! Free!; 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, 2024; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave. in Wicker Park”

    A headshot of Chicago-based artist, librarian, and storyteller Alex O’Keefe.

  • Zine Club Chicago Online: Return of Zine Bingo Edition, April 23rd

    Zine Club Chicago Online: Return of Zine Bingo Edition
    7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 23 on Zoom
    Free!

    This month, Zine Club Chicago is bringing back Zine Bingo! Our twist on the classic game will give everyone an opportunity to go on a scavenger hunt through your own zine collections.

    Check out our bingo card, grab your zines, BYOS(nacks) and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Return of Zine Bingo Edition at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

    Here’s how our version of Zine Bingo will work: We’ve created a zinecentric bingo card that you can find in this post and at quimbys.com. (We’ll all be using the same card for the game; feel free to print it out or download it). Each box on the card represents a category of zines that you might have in your collection; for example, a how-to zine or a zine about cats.

    Before we meet, search your collection and find one zine that corresponds to a category in one box from each vertical row on the card. The rows are marked with the letters Z-I-N-E-S. Each box also has a number in the corner. (Y’all are welcome to bring zines that correspond to more or fewer than one box per row, or to not bring zines at all and join us just to hang out.)

    During our event, we’ll randomly pull bingo balls marked with the letter and number of each box on the bingo card. Folks with a zine that fits the category in the box we’ve called will then tell us about the zine they brought. We’ll keep going until we get a collective bingo! (Everyone is a winner at Zine Club Chicago.)

    ** 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 5 p.m. CT Monday, April 22 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 23.

    -> Please note that we’ve changed the RSVP cutoff to 5 P.M. CT on the evening before our online event! <-

    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 designs our monthly flyers and 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: https://zineclubchicagoshoutouts.spread.name/

    More info at the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    Facebook event link is here.

    Image descriptions

    A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with an image of a round wire receptacle filled with bingo balls, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Return of Zine Bingo Edition; Online! Free!; Zoom info + bingo card on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 23, 2024”

    A handmade Zine Bingo board with a description of a different category of zine in each square.

  • Off-Site: Zine Club Chicago: Zinemaking Hangout on Marz, April 30th

    Zine Club Chicago: Zinemaking Hangout on Marz
    Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown
    7 – 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 30
    Free!

    Local zine friends, Zine Club Chicago is thrilled to announce that we’re launching a new in-person meetup for folks who want to get together and make zines! We’re teaming up with Life on Marz Community Club, a brewery taproom and café space that we love, for an evening of zinemaking and camaraderie every other month, beginning in April.

    Please join us for our first Zine Club Chicago: Zinemaking Hangout on Marz, 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, April 30 at Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown. Free!

    Zine Club Chicago will provide the zinemaking supplies! Just bring your creativity. Life on Marz Community Club offers awesome alcoholic, CBD, and non-alcoholic beverages from Marz Brewery and more, plus some very fun snacks, for purchase.

    Life on Marz also hosts a Drink & Draw with resident comic illustrator Matt Salazar every Tuesday evening starting at 5 p.m., so feel free to arrive early or stay late to check that out, too!

    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 designs our monthly flyers and created our logo.

    More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    Facebook event link is here.

    Image description
    A flyer featuring a background image of the red surface of the planet Mars and this text: “Zine Club Chicago: Zinemaking Hangout on Marz; 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, April 30; Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave; Free; Info: quimbys.com”

  • Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl, Independent Bookstore Day, April 27th

    Independent Bookstore Day – Saturday, April 27, 2024

    Quimby’s is celebrating Independent Bookstore Day this year in 2 great ways! We’re a stop on the annual IBD Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl, and we’re also featuring an in-store event with Bianca Xunise in discussion with Jessica Hopper to celebrate the release of PUNK ROCK KARAOKE.

    About the 2024 Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl

    Yet again, Chicagoland proves itself to be the dream destination for book lovers and readers of all ages! More than 40 independent bookstores in the greater Chicago area—from Lake Forest to Beverly, and Naperville to the Loop—are collaborating on our annual Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl, which encourages book lovers to indulge in bookstore tourism by visiting 10 or more stores in a single day.

    The annual challenge is being held again on Independent Bookstore Day (IBD), which is a one-day national party celebrating indie book stores on the last Saturday in April. Each store creates its own unique events—including guest authors, special kids’ story times, readings, contests, giveaways, and special sales.

    How to Participate…
    Select your first bookstore and receive a passport and your first stamp.

    Now check out the map—which lists all the participating stores—and start planning your route!

    Additional bookstores you visit throughout the day will provide you with a stamp with no purchase required! (However, showing them some love today, too, would of course be a very cool thing to do.)

    And to remind you of the goals:

    • Visit TEN stores in one day and get 10% off at all participating bookstores for an ENTIRE YEAR!

    • Visit FIFTEEN stores in one day and get 15% off at all participating bookstores for an ENTIRE YEAR!

    After visiting 10 or 15 participating bookstores, on your last bookstore visit show your passport and receive a limited edition pin!

    Readers are encouraged to post a snapshot of themselves and their Independent Bookstore Day haul on social media with the hashtag #TEAMINDIE and #ChiLoveBooks.

    See chilovebooks.com for more info about IBD in Chicago, including info about tickets for 3 bus routes to different stores.

    Stay posted for more #IBD24 surprises!

     

  • Rob Drew Celebrates Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable, June 22nd

    Rob Drew Celebrates
    Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable,
    In Conversation with Liz Mason
    at Quimby’s Bookstore
    1854 W. North Ave
    Saturday, June 22nd, 3pm

    Quimby’s welcomes Rob Drew to celebrate the release of his book Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable on Saturday, June 22nd at 3pm, in conversation with Quimby’s manager Liz Mason.

    Join us to hear Dr. Rob Drew trace the history of the cassette tape, a cheap, low-fidelity music medium that fans grew to love. Rob will discuss how cassettes upended the music industry, inspired independent musicians, and initiated rituals of music sharing through mix tapes.

     

    Well into the new millennium, the analog cassette tape continues to claw its way back from obsolescence. New cassette labels emerge from hipster enclaves while the cassette’s likeness pops up on T-shirts, coffee mugs, belt buckles, and cell phone cases. In Unspooled, Rob Drew traces how a lowly, hissy format that began life in office dictation machines and cheap portable players came to be regarded as a token of intimate expression through music and a source of cultural capital. Drawing on sources ranging from obscure music zines to transcripts of Congressional hearings, Drew examines a moment in the early 1980s when music industry representatives argued that the cassette encouraged piracy. At the same time, 1980s indie rock culture used the cassette as a symbol to define itself as an outsider community. Indie’s love affair with the cassette culminated in the mixtape, which advanced indie’s image as a gift economy. By telling the cassette’s long and winding history, Drew demonstrates that sharing cassettes became an acceptable and meaningful mode of communication that initiated rituals of independent music recording, re-recording, and gifting.

    “Offering a comprehensive history of the cassette from its origins in post-World War II taping technologies to the recent revival of the music cassette as a hipster artifact, Unspooled is the first book to give an extended account of the various ways that cassettes have transformed musical culture. This wonderfully engaging, clear, and witty book will appeal to a wide audience of music fans and critics interested in mixtapes, cassettes, and cassette culture and will become a classic in many fields.” -Will Straw, Professor of Urban Media Studies, McGill University

    “Rob Drew is one of my favorite writers on music, and I wish more people knew about his work. This is the definitive cultural history of indie music’s tangled but fascinating love affair with the audiocassette.” -David Hesmondhalgh, author of Why Music Matters

    “Any readers who have ever received or created a mixtape will appreciate this narrative. A solid blend of history and nostalgia about cassette tapes that’s perfect for Gen Xers.” -Tina Panik, Library Journal

    “The story of the cassette tape Drew and Masters tell is compelling: how a lo-fi, accident- and deterioration-prone, and more-or-less parasitic audio technology not only achieved market dominance but captured a permanent place in the imaginations and practices of music-makers, labels, distributors, and fans the world over. Unspooled and High Bias show readers that the peculiar technology of the cassette tape exemplifies the inherent contradictions of popular music perhaps better than any other medium.” — David Pike, Popmatters

    “Divided into six sharp chapters, Unspooled walks readers through the rich history of music nerds who used cassettes in ever-evolving ways. By following the chronology, Drew provides a detailed exploration of the cassette in terms of format, medium, and artifact.” — Adam P. Newton, Treble Zine (Read the full review here.)

    Rob Drew is Professor of Communication at Saginaw Valley State University and author of Karaoke Nights: An Ethnographic Rhapsody. Follow him at @slobster48602

    Liz Mason is the manager of Quimby’s Bookstore, a zine publisher, a mix tape aficionado and a karaoke enthusiast. Follow her at @caboosezine

    Want the Facebook event invite for this? Here ya go!

    Watch Rob on the “Cassette Books Mixtape” panel with Marc Masters (High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape), Jerry Kranitz (Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age), moderated by Tom McCourt.