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Notebook #2

One of the artists I’m considering featuring in my zine for this class is Alma Rosa Rivera. Rivera is a Chicana poet and businesswoman who started her own small printing press called Frijolera Press which curates work with “an audience of Chicanx, Latinx, Brown, Indigenous, womxn in mind.” One of her more well-known works is a poetry collection titled Love in the Time of Trump which examines the politics/experiences of being a Chicana/Chicanx in falling in love today’s political climate.

 I’m considering choosing Rivera to feature in the zine because she actually came into one of my writing workshops last quarter to perform some of her work and it was an incredible experience. Her writing is beautiful, shifting from spanish to english and back again and really examines the complexity of identity, of a specifically Chicana/Chicanx identity in a sometimes tender, but also empowering way. For more information, this article on Latina.com on Rivera I found was really eye-opening about her process and approach to her work. 

[photo from her instagram @chicana_catwomxn]

Rivera defines being latinx or “latinidad” through her art and business in the way her work is completely inseparable from her identity and experience. She writes about her culture, memory and community being a chicana growing up in southern california, seeking to elevate her voice and other marginalized voices that haven’t had the same access and/or attention that other more privileged/white writers would have more access to through her printing press, again curated by and for “Chicanx, Latinx, Brown and Indigenous, womxn” and trans/gender non-conforming people. 

(I’m still considering other artists as well to include in the zine for class!!!)

[wishboneoptimism-blog]

Notebook #1

GRIT is a digital compilation zine of various writers and artists put together by an editor who goes by the name of Sakina. In the editors letter, which begins the inaugural issue of GRIT, Sakina immediately gets right to the thematic focus of the zine, saying that they “started GRIT with one thing in mind: feminism. And the freedom to express it.” The purpose of the zine to explore and help further normalize it’s concepts through the diverse pieces and experiences of the artists who submitted to the zine, helping them gain exposure as creators in the process. 

The audience seems to be young people, not exclusively cisgender girls/women, who are interested in writing and art about their personal, diverse experiences being a woman in a patriarchal society--evident in the content of the poems and pieces. It seems to be geared towards a younger audience just in the casual and playful language used in the editors letter--which sets the tone for the rest of the magazine. It’s focused in theme but lighthearted and confessional, establishing an open, nonjudgemental creative space. 

The zine uses diverse creative mediums to explore how each artist experiences feminism including poetry, nonfiction/journalistic pieces, art and photography.