Guess what? I’m putting together a zine!! Zines are just so cool, I decided that I’d love to put one together myself, with the help of all of you, of course! The theme of the zine is:

DIY Life: Doing things independently of experts, professionals, institutions, corporations, or similar things.

I’m looking for submissions of articles, opinions, artwork, poetry, quotes, and anything else you want to send me. I finally decided on this theme because I feel it gives a ton of freedom in what you submit (anything from physical DIY projects, to articles on radical political philosophy, to education, parenting, crafting, and beyond!) while still retaining a more radical feeling and outlook, which makes me, personally, happy! As a note, your submission can also be ANTI or AGAINST something you see as being opposed to a DIY lifestyle (i.e schools).

The theme is pretty flexible, but I do reserve the right to not accept submissions that really do not fit with the theme (i.e. why public schooling is absolutely necessary), though I don’t really expect to turn down anything, and am really looking forward to seeing what you guys have to share!!

As I receive submissions, I will post them on a blog that will be accessible ONLY to those who have themselves said that they will be submitting something or have already submitted something, so that you can see what other people have done, gain inspiration, draw some artwork to go with someone elses article, or just generally collaborate.

Once I’ve received enough submissions, and with enough prior warning to everyone who’s interested in submitting, of course, I will then put everything together in a proper zine, which I will then send by email (most likely in PDF format) to anyone who wants it (if someone can point me towards a good, safe, file hosting website, then I may also have it there for easy downloading), or if someone wants a hard copy, you can send me a few dollars to cover printing and shipping and I can send it straight to you (sorry guys, but I’m broke, so that’s the only way I can do it!). I will also distribute some hard copies locally, and I’d love it if you guys also chose to do so, but really, share it as much or as little as you want to, and in whatever ways you want to!

If you have something already written that you’d like to submit, send it straight to me. If you simply know that you want to submit something, but don’t have it done yet and/or haven’t decided what you’re going to do, please send me an email letting me know that, so that I know you will be submitting something at some point!  Oh, and I will happily help with editing if you want me to, just ask. Otherwise, I will fix spelling mistakes and obvious grammatical mistakes (the same word repeated twice, for instance), but will touch nothing else without your permission. Send all submissions to: open.eyed.slave@gmail.com

IMPORTANT: If you want people to be able to find more of your work if they’re interested, let me know when you send in your submission if you have a website, blog, Twitter account, or any site that you want to be included in the zine (example: Urban Foraging by Cindy Jones (www.foragingwithcindy.com).

Suggestions, just that I can think of off the top of my head, and please know that you’re entirely not limited just to the items in this list:

Articles on:
• Education (unschooling, homeschooling, skill sharing, community classes, educational co-ops)
• Parenting (attachment/natural parenting, radical unschooling, non-conditional parenting)
• Personal health care (herbal medicine, wild medicinals, nutrition, first aid)
• Sustainable living (gardening, food preservation, foraging, non-toxic and homemade household products, re-purposing projects, cooking and recipes)
• Community building/living/good for community/people stuff (community organizing, collectives, cooperatives, non-violent communication, peer counseling, autonomous living, intentional communities, any by the people for the people type stuff)
• Independent travel
• DIY projects or crafting projects of any sort (building a kiln, soap making, jewelry making, bow and arrow making, whatever you enjoy doing!)

Art such as:
• Any artwork, in B&W (photos aren’t great though, since they don’t photocopy well)
• Any poetry
• Any copyleft (not copyrighted), or licensed under creative commons, artwork other than your own that you think would fit with the zine

NOTE: Because of its nature, your own artwork and poetry does not need to conform to the theme, though it certainly can.

Miscellaneous stuff such as:
• Quotes, verses, or similar things, yours or copyleft stuff
• Anything else you can think of!!!!!


NOTE: by submitting anything, you agree that it is “copyleft” (not copyrighted), and can be copied and distributed by anyone. That’s just the way zines work: people often appropriate content in them for other uses (usually with proper attribution, although there are no guarantees).

For this to work, of course, I need submissions (sent to open.eyed.slave@gmail.com!)!! I’m really hoping I’ll get enough, really looking forward to seeing everything I do get, and just generally really excited about this project. :-D Also, if you have any questions or suggestions, please drop me a line as well! (Same address as above: open.eyed.slave@gmail.com)

Oh, and please feel free to pass this on to anyone whom you think may be interested!

Peace,
Idzie