On a rainy Sunday this past March. the Vermillion bar was chock full of weirdos: zinesters, comic artists, poets, performers and other awesome folks. The beer flowed almost as much as the poetry, our high school correspondent made led collage-making in the front galleries, and we all were there to celebrate the long awaited, glorious independence of the Zine Archive & Publishing Project.

Only a few weeks prior to the move of the collection to our temporary storage through Seattle Public Library, we thought a party would be in order for a couple reasons. One was that we were working so hard on behind the scenes business that some people assumed ZAPP had shut down, an assumption which clearly could not stand. We also had been so busy on behind the scenes business that we hadn’t seen our ZAPP buddies in a very long time… and of course, we really just needed to throw down and have a huge party. And luckily, all of ZAPP’s alums are hugely talented and equally generous, so the entertainment was great.

Mark Campos gave a short and hilarious presentation on his favorite zines, including the infamous “Frrr without Fear” about, you know, furries; Emily Wittenhagen came with a haunting sound and poetry performance; Bryan Edenfield took us on a winding journey through the mythical Southwest and the world of professional writing; Graham Issac shared some fierce and powerful readings; Kate Lebo took us through a road trip through rural Washington.

And the EMTs only had to come once.

If you were there, you know it was amazing. If you missed it, well, you’ll just have to come to one of our upcoming open hours at Black Coffee Coop. So far we’ve been treated to marching bands and free feasts, so they’ve been pretty magical themselves.