AHOY Zinemaking Workshop
AHOY ZINEMAKING
Writeup by William Smith
Printed’s perhaps number one goal as an organization and publication is accessibility. We want our stuff easy to access, and we want it available for participation from anybody. Unfortunately though, there is one category where our hands are tied here. Edition submissions must come from creatives over the age of eighteen. Adults, as they are also known. While we accept this limitation, we’ve long been searching for alternatives for the kids out there.
Enter Portland Museum. I’ve been working there for about a year now, and learned about the open position from Lindsey Cummins, Printed’s co-founder, being on their board. Thus, Portland Museum has been an important part of Printed’s story, and with this event we wanted to give back to it’s amazing community however we could. And hey, zines are what we know, and Portland Museum’s upcoming AHOY project is all for the kids. When the need and funding for programming came up, it was a perfect match! Zines for the kids!
AHOY stands for Adventure House of You, and is going to be an interactive arts space where kids can run around, climb, touch, and discover local history their own way. Imagine a fully interactable, and non-fragile, installation piece. It’s an ambitious and inspiring project, especially considering its dedication to Louisville’s underserved West End, and in its development Portland Museum is looking for feedback from the kids who will eventually utilize it. This is the Catfish Club! While kids were making their zine they were surrounded by props and concept art for the upcoming AHOY, and were happy to give some big ideas. My favorites so far have been “maybe some rooms can have different smells” and the brief yet striking “couch outside.”
Promotional Art by Shannon Delahanty
Shannon and Forrest spreading some creativity
With the wires now connected and the plan drawn out, it was time for Printed’s Shannon Delahanty to start her own drawing. Portland Museum is host to an archive filled with its neighborhood’s history, including a large collection of photos. AHOY plans to mix folk history with dreamlike creativity, and in creating our zine offering Shannon wanted to do the same thing. She absolutely nailed it. Postcards and family photos alike were cleverly collaged with adorable, nautical doodles, leaving participating kids room to color and create their own additions. Multiple variants of the zine were created with different photos to facilitate further uniqueness, but also sharing. Not wanting to start any of these kids on the hard stuff and frustrations that can come with, these zines are the simple yet impressive one-page folding books. Only one little scissor slit and some deft folding required! Keep your eyes on the zine library in the coming week to see and maybe even make one for yourself.
I’d be remiss not to mention Forrest Pass, an arborist, artist, and Shannon’s husband. He and Shannon on the day of put their entire soul and all their physical energy into helping these kids make the zines of their dreams. Their eyes lit up as their fingers grew blue, yellow, and green from crayon wax. Forrest’s adult hands took directions with a hot glue gun as kids mapped out placements for pipecleaners and felt. Shannon guided zinesters back to the letterpress room and directed them through a full printing utilizing the hulking machine. Katy Delahanty, executive director of Portland Museum, Shannon’s sister, and my wonderful boss, utilized her own artistic training to provide guidance throughout the day while also collecting AHOY feedback. It was an amazing showing from everyone, especially the participating kids, and I have nothing but thanks to give to everyone who came out and put their all into a zine! It’s pretty fun, right?
Shannon passing on her mastery of the letterpress one set of hands at a time.
While the kiddos left with their new art in-hand, the adults left with a request: submit to Printed Edition Two! I spent most of the day manning the classic Printed table, slinging a bit of merch but more importantly passing out flyers for Edition Two. There’s still plenty of time between now and October 1st, so send that artwork over! October 1st will also prove another collaborative opportunity with Portland Museum, being their annual Art and Heritage Fair. We’ll be tabling with some yet-to-be revealed merchandise and I’m sure another round of this zinemaking workshop, so make sure to show out!
In closing, my favorite interaction of the day was with a little girl who was a zinemaker without even knowing it. She told me about her huge collection of self-made books she had at home, and how she was excited to add the day’s haul to it. I say haul because I think she made two zines. She also promised me she’d bring me a book or two to survey at the Art and Heritage Fair. I look forward to it, as I do to hopefully seeing her zine on a random newspaper stand fifteen years from now.
If you would like to know more about Portland Museum:
Oh yeah, and there was a bat.
