May 27, 2025 | 5:30-7:30pm
Calamity’s Coffee, Oak Ridge Tn
Come learn how to make a zine!
Zines (pronounced “zeen”) are DIY, self-published works. They can be as simple as one sheet of paper cut and folded or as creative as multiple pages cut and sewn together. There are no rules.
They’re a wonderful way to share knowledge, art, poetry, ideas, and stories.
In this workshop I’ll teach you a few different ways to make a zine and then we’ll get creative together making our own one-sheet mini zines.
I’ll have paper, pens and markers, and some basic collage materials. Bring your own ideas or get inspired while we make.
No artistic talent required!
What is a zine?
The term zine was coined in the 1930s or 40s and is short for fanzine because of the sci-fi fan fiction communities where it originated.
The act of creating small-circulation self-published booklets, pamphlets, and “Little Magazines” goes way back though, from the American Revolution to the Harlem Renaissance, and likely even earlier.
Historically, zines have been used to share art, poetry, information that might otherwise be gatekept, acts of resistance, comics, short stories, herbal knowledge, and everything else you can think
They’re also just fun to make, and the ideas are endless!
Zines can run the gamut from irreverent to powerful.
I’ve seen tiny zines with just one small drawing on each page and no words. I’ve seen zines that might just as easily have been called books. Yesterday I saw a zine specifically teaching you how to change your own tire.
The possibilities are literally endless.
About the Host
Lena Elizer is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator living in Oak Ridge since 2017. She's also an artist, front yard veggie gardener, wife, and mom to 5-year-old twins. Learn more interesting tidbits and see her work at lenaelizer.com.