New Library Exhibit Explores World of Zines

New Library Exhibit Explores World of Zines

By Brian Hiro

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It's fitting that the title of the new art exhibit on the third floor of Kellogg Library is "Zine Dreams."

April Ibarra Siqueiros, the curator of the exhibit and a user experience librarian at Cal State San Marcos, does indeed dream of zines - short for "magazine," the term refers to handmade publications in booklet form about any topic, presented as an alternative to mainstream media.

Siqueiros dreams about the zines she wants to make. She dreams about the zines she wants to add to her growing collection. And she dreams about the zine community that she wants to cultivate at CSUSM.

Her current exhibitin the library - part of the biannual Context Exhibit Series, it's on display in person or online through Dec. 15 - is a big step in that direction. Subtitled "publishing in your hands," the exhibit is essentially a love letter to zine culture told through Siqueiros' creative eye and curious mind.

It features about 60 zines from her personal collection - covering such topics as borders, immigration, art, gender and sexuality - and a dozen more that she has made, either by herself or with a group. It also includes information about the process of zine-making, the history of zines and the local zine community.

"Zines can be a way for marginalized and oppressed voices to use a format to share their stories, make calls to action, teach something and build community," Siqueiros said. "They can also be random, silly and made to bring joy. It's a format that is open to all, regardless of skill level.

"Sometimes I hear someone say they aren't an artist or 'creative' when it comes to zine making, but in my experience teaching zine workshops, that doesn't matter. If someone intentionally explores zine making, it is likely a cool zine will come out of it."

Growing up in the South Bay, Siqueiros says she was always a crafty child. She remembers first hearing about zines from a Nickelodeon cartoon in the early 2000s, and she bought her first one in 2008 - a Mexican cookzine called "Vegan de Guadalupe" (a play on veganism and the Virgin Mary), it's included in the exhibit.

Siqueiros crossed over from simply collecting zines to making them about a decade ago when she was pursuing a master's degree in library and information science at the Pratt Institute in New York. Inspired by attending the Brooklyn Zine Fest, she created her initial zine as part of an art collective with some friends. A year later, she displayed her first solo zine at the same festival.

"Having been an artist and crafter, I've always gravitated to making things," she said. "Zines opened up another realm of creating for me, which stuck 10 years later."

Most of zines Siqueiros has made fall under the general theme she conjured up called "Valley of Paradox." Of those, she's proudest of one named "Celestial Hearts: deep connections with deep space," which is about her love of astronomy. It represented a leap forward for her in ambition, creativity and research, and about half of it is contributed content from fellow zinesters who responded to a call for submission. She's working on a second and third part of the series, which will focus alternately on her personal astronomical adventures and stories, and research about astronomers and space explorers.

Siqueiros has worked for the CSUSM library since 2019, and during that time she gradually has become exposed to an interest in zines by the campus community - whether it's professors incorporating zines into their assignments or colleagues who make them or are just intrigued by them. She began thinking about curating the exhibit two years ago, and her desire to pursue it was reinforced as she taught zine workshops for a few instructors, including Dominque Harrison, who works for the Office of Institutional Planning & Analysis but also teaches a seminar for first-year students. Three zines created during Harrison's class last summer are on display in the exhibit.

"While zines are not mainstream, it just takes a zine point person to open up this format to someone's world," Siqueiros said.

She would like to be that person for any number of students who stroll by her exhibit this semester. But she doesn't want "Zine Dreams" to be only a passive experience. The goal is to unlock others' zine-making potential. On Oct. 9 from 1-2 p.m., Siqueiros will collaborate with the Common Read program on a workshop in The Makerywhere students can create a page in a collective zine that highlights their identities and stories.

"It might take someone years later to make one like it did for me," she said. "Minimally, my hope is that anyone who sees the exhibit reflects on the power of DIY publishing and how zines provide a way for us to learn about things that we may never be exposed to otherwise."

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