‘Where do you come from and where are you going?’ was one of the questions asked during the zine making workshops. We used zines to make maps, to introduce the places where we live and work and play to other people. Our maps show the places which are forgotten and the places which mean the most to us. During lockdown our understanding of our homes and our neighbourhoods began to change, and the maps and zines created reflect new explorations of our changing space.
Billie Blossom, Memory of Mills
“This zine presents a mixture of memories and dreams of the Millennium Mills, a derelict factory complex in my home borough of Newham which I've had a fascination with since being a teenager. As much of Newham has been redeveloped beyond recognition in the past decade, the empty lots of the Docks were a familiar place. They were both a playground and a kind of muse. Now, with those poised for redevelopment as well, I'm examining the psychogeographic relationship between me and the place, and the lingering feelings about it.”
Anonymous, Lockdown Discoveries
“I started creating my one page zine during the online workshops. The facilitator shared the many themes, structures and formats zines can have. There was a map as a background in one of the samples and that felt like a good starting point because I started exploring my neighbourhood during lockdown; I started tracing my local landscape as I replaced cycling with running. I became more aware of my surroundings and was able to notice more details: smells, plants, shortcuts, murals, paths.”
JC Newman, Coronapocalypse
“This zine (below) and extract (above) share snippets of my experience of living in Newham during Lockdown in 2020. The original meaning of apocalypse is "an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known" and it's only through exploring Newham during the coronavirus pandemic that I've really got to know my new home. After a number of personally difficult years, this period of stillness also gave me time to explore much more than Newham and I'll be exploring this in a longer form zine in the near future, inspired by the Message in a Bottle project.”
Anonymous, Sk8’r Girl
“I made it while attending the zine making workshop run by Queer Zine Library. It was something which came to me and is of personal importance.”
Sk8’r Girl first took shape during a zine making workshops hosted by Jael de la Luz. The zine documented how the creator rediscovered their local area during lockdown through their love of skating which connected them to larger queer skate communities.
Queer Sk8’r Zine
The personal reflection which began in Sk8’r Girl zine led to the start of something bigger, the idea to reach out to other skaters in London resulting in a collaborative queer skate zine. Read the full zine here!
Romilly Goodliff, Famous West Ham
“We were sent a (resource) pack and the contents were quite strange but I thought with my mum about my area and why we like doing certain things. We wish there was a zoo here. Newham has a farm but it's a long way away. My favourite thing was the stamp and pad, it made it feel like I was making a history book.”