Here’s a round-up of stuff we’ve been up to:

Events

•  Every third Sunday for months now, we’ve been on Hollow Earth radio, talking about zines.
• ZAPP tabled at the Hiawatha Artist Loft for a BBQ and their annual Flea Market.  We busted out some zines and slung a few shirts and shrinky dinks.
• ZAPP hosted a blanket at the Vibrations art festival in Volunteer Park in August. People sat and read some zines while they listened to the bands. And it was lovely.

Publications

• The second issue of Xenographic, Gynocracy, was printed in July. Thanks to Jon Horn for putting it together!

Administration

•  Want to donate your zines? We have a PO box for that! Or write ZAPP a letter, that would be great, too!
• A survey was sent out, seeking feedback on ZAPP’s plan for fundraising and finding a new space. We got a ~2% response; results are being compiled but the tl;dr is people want ZAPP to exist, and they want more info on what’s happening.  Please email info@zappseattle.org if you’d like to take this survey and provide your own feedback.

It’s an awkward thing, fundraising for an organization that has most of its physical assets in storage for the time being.  We’d love to have you over to browse our archive of 30,000+ zines!  We can’t wait to invite you back to use our lightbox/typewriter/photocopier to make your next project!

Why is ZAPP so awesome and worthy of your financial support?  Well, we can’t have you visit us so we can show you, but for now let us tell you what we love about ZAPP.

Emily, our fundraising chair, loves that ZAPP is “a killer resource for celebrating and developing experimental ideas.”  One of the main reasons we’re in serious fundraising mode right now is so that we can afford to have our own space again — or, as Emily sums it up, “to ensure that there is a safe space for these ideas to be preserved, created, and accessed by the public.”

Were you there for our big Sasquatch exhibit in January 2010 at Hugo House?  Nora, our coordinator at the time, remembers intern Owen putting that together.  “So many people started to reveal their call to Bigfoot” — like participating artists Kelly Froh, David Lasky, Darin Shuler, Greg Hoffman, Mare Odomo, Curt Waller, and Max Clotfelter.  “And Steve Willis, zine-maker and librarian, donated his Sasquatch zines stories — told us some whoppers too.”

Kelly McElroy tweeted today:

I was sitting in @zappseattle when I realized I wanted to become a librarian, so if you’re glad I did, mebbe donate? https://t.co/I1rgr1XTF3

— Kelly McElroy (@kellymce) May 6, 2014

Chris (that’s me!) was there when ZAPP hosted the first ever Zine Librarians (un)Conference — I’ve been trying to apply librarian standards to my personal zine archive at home ever since.  And Jon, our legal/governance chair, enjoyed the ZL(u)C zine reading where Zach Mandeville brought down the house with a reading from his zine, “Funwater Awesome.”

What have you loved about ZAPP?  Have you been to one of our workshops?  Did you make a zine at ZAPP?  What amazing zines have you read in our archive?  How has ZAPP inspired you?  Leave your stories and reminiscences in the comments!  And, if you feel moved, pop over to the GiveBIG tip jar (specify “for ZAPP” in the comments field) and leave us a few coins.

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.