Full program details inside~
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| The Black Zine Fair Returns! |
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In a political climate marked by book bans and state suppression, the Black Zine Fair returns as a space of imagination, sabotage, and play. On Saturday, May 3, 2025, from 11am to 6pm, over 70 Black artists, publishers, educators, and collectives will gather at Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn for a free, public celebration of independent publishing and do-it-yourself culture through the lens of Black creativity. This year’s theme, DISCURSIVE CIRCUS, invites visitors into a world of ancestral memory, radical storytelling, and collective joy. With hands-on workshops, all-day zine-making and exchange stations, and featured workshops led by contributors from the Johnson Publishing Company archive to the fair’s first ever movement workshop that guides us how to embody our words through movement, the fair offers a powerful counterforce to erasure and control. |
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| Black Love Letters
with Annika Hansteen-Izora Saturday, April 12 ⋅ 12-1:30pm |
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Celebrate the beauty of Black love in all its forms—platonic, self-directed, spatial, and more—through guided writing and reflection. Inspired by Black poets who expand the language of love, you'll craft your own heartfelt letters to the people, places, and things that sustain you. |
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Writing the Body
with Danialie Fertile Saturday, April 19 ⋅ 12-1:30pm |
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Explore how the body becomes both muse and medium through writing that honors its joy, grief, and desire. In this workshop, you’ll engage with works by poets like Audre Lorde and Bettina Judd, then create your own pieces that trace the intimate connection between language and flesh. |
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| Keynote
Speaker to be announced Saturday, April 26 ⋅ 12-1:30pm |
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Join us for a keynote lecture that honors the deep and expansive legacy of Black publishing. This archival activation invites us to celebrate the ingenuity of Black people who have long circulated subversive ideas—well before the term zine was coined, and even before the invention of the printing press. Focusing on a pivotal historical artifact or moment in Black publishing history, we’ll explore how radical pamphleteering, fugitive ephemera, and underground distribution networks laid the groundwork for contemporary zine culture. This is a call to remember, reimagine, and activate the past as a living practice in the present. |
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| Suminagashi
with Khari Johnson-Ricks
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Learn suminagashi, the ancient Japanese technique of marbling paper with ink and water. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll create two original prints while exploring the calming rhythm and expressive potential of this timeless art form. |
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Black Publishing Reimagined
with Tulani Pryor & Jehoiada Calvin
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Dive into the groundbreaking legacy of Johnson Publishing Company and its profound impact on Black visual culture. This workshop invites you to reflect, discuss, and design your own zine, imagining new futures for Black publishing and storytelling. |
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| Make a Memoir
with Jonell Joshua |
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Channel memory into art through guided collage and journaling exercises inspired by Jonell Joshua’s debut memoir. You'll create a “mini memoir” that blends images and words, unlocking personal stories through creative self-expression. |
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Moving Through Language
with Raymond Pinto |
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Experience the synergy between body and language as movement fuels your creative writing practice. This workshop bridges poetry and physical expression, inviting you to write from a deeply embodied place. |
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| Collaborative Screen Printing
with Du-Good Press |
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Come together to screen print and assemble a collective zine that celebrates the power of cooperation. Through shared design and production, you’ll gain hands-on skills while contributing to a unified, community-made publication. |
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Black Joy Archive
with Zoe Pulley |
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Reflect on the enduring power of Black joy as a force of resilience, imagination, and cultural continuity. In this zine-making workshop, you'll use collage and creative writing to archive joy as both personal memory and collective inheritance. |
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| This fair exists because of you. Thanks to the incredible support of our community, we raised $15k to bring the 2025 Black Zine Fair to life! Your generous donations help keep the fair free, accessible, and rooted in collective care. The Black Zine Fair is a community-powered event presented by Sojourners for Justice Press and hosted by Powerhouse Arts. We’re also deeply grateful to our co-sponsors whose support helps make the fair possible: The Free Black Women’s Library, Print Center New York, Barnard Zine Library, Weeksville Heritage Center, and Orange Tangent Study. |
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| ★ Keep supporting Sojourners for Justice Press ★ |
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With your continued support, we can pay fair, competitive wages to Black creatives in publishing, create publications centering historically excluded Black communities—including those incarcerated in prisons—and amplify the voices of Black women and gender non-conforming people. Your contributions also help us offer free public programs like the annual Black Zine Fair. |
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| Sojourners for Justice Press * P.O. Box 1654, New York City, NY 10159 * [email protected] |
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