Zinesters Unite- Salemites Forced into Submissions

Last night I harassed numerous artwalk participants to be a part of Salem’s Community Zine. Many people declined, however many, many people participated…87 people to be exact! Most people have never heard of a zine and were a bit skeptical of it’s strange magical powers, and still some of you have no clue what I’m talking about. Simply a zine (pronounced like magazine) is a xeroed book. And usually it’s created by one person who also prints and distributes it. This book will be special though because it was made by interesting, fun and unique Salemites.

I’m going to list the highlights of the night now….

• My friend Cheryl. Everyone should have a Cheryl in their life (not mine, cause I’m not sharing) Cheryl is the friend who will stand in 97 degree heat promoting you to complete strangers. This friend will also make you laugh, inspire you to dream big, and keep you motivated when you are sick and tired or both.
• Stepping out of my comfort zone. I follow my mom’s instructions of not talking to strangers well into adulthood. Talking to groups of people coming to an event for a purpose or a class, not a problem, but talking to strangers off the streets is not a norm of mine. So it was cool to encourage (read harass, plead, beg) people to participate in a community project (even announce it at open mic night amplified, gulp!).
• Meeting some cool cats and hearing some stories. I met a really articulate and interesting person named Jen who is originally from Canada. She apparently has read my blog (shock!) and I enjoyed meeting her briefly before having to harass more Salemites for zine submissions. I met an ol’ timer named Burt from the NW Car & Motorcycle Museum who helps with a program to teach alternative school kids to build Model T cars. How cool is that?!?! And I met another man, Kyle who knows much more than I about zines and he shared with me some of his background in Visual communication and graphics. Hopefully he’ll make some zines to share soon.
• And the best part of the night was reading through all the diverse submissions while kicking back in bed. With my feet up, hubby snoring (sorry honey) and a moth dancing around my bedside lamp, I read stories of people who were brave and kind enough to share a piece of who they are. These people I would have never met in any other way than through this project and I feel like such a lucky girl to have had the experience.

You too can get to know your community when you pick up your copy of Salem’s Community Zine Aug. 4^th at Clockworks Cafe. Enjoy reading through the stories about Salemites and their thoughts of what makes Salem special. And maybe you’ll come to the same conclusion as me. Sure we have some fun places in Salem, but it’s our citizens that define the community.

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