This Thursday marks the start of a three-day event in Toronto called She Said Boom. Billed as a feminist zine-making symposium, it will feature an exciting array of creators and trailblazers, zinemakers, musicians and allies, sharing ideas and listening to each other. Thursday brings a screening of Kevin Hegge’s documentary on the Toronto all-female post-punk band Fifth Column, as well as a chat with the filmmaker himself (see BP editor Lindsay Gibb’s story on the film here) while on Friday, Fifth Column members Keynote GB Jones and Caroline Azar will sit on a panel to talk about feminist zine-making in 1980s and 1990s Toronto. Saturday, OCAD instructor and artist Shannon Gerard will lead a zine-making workshop, with the finished product to be launched at a closing dance party at gallerywest.
This will be most wicked, yes? We think so, and we had a nice and candid email chat with the event organizer, Erin Oldynski to find out more about how this symposium came to be, and what it seeks to accomplish. View the complete schedule of events, locations etc on Facebook.
Broken Pencil – I see that you are the co-founder of the Pittsburgh Zine Fair. What brought you to TO, and have you still been involved with zines since coming here?
Erin: I grew up in Pittsburgh and organized the first Pittsburgh Zine Fair in 2011. What really inspired the creation of the Pittsburgh Zine Fair was a feminist zine symposium that the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh organized in the spring of 2011. I went to that zine symposium, met a lot of amazing women and feminists, and we decided to create an annual zine fair to show all of the creative work being done in Pittsburgh around self-publishing and zine-making.
I moved to Toronto in the fall of 2011 for grad school. Most of my time has been taken up by school, but last summer I went to the premiere film screening of She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column by director Kevin Hegge. I fell in love with the women in that film. GB Jones and Caroline Azar were at the film screening to answer questions afterward, so I spoke for a bit with GB about zines and how we both love Pittsburgh. Seeing that film and talking with GB has stuck with me. I knew that I wanted to organize something inspired by the film and by meeting GB, but I wasn’t sure what until recently.
How did the idea for this symposium come about?
I am a student union organizer with the Graduate Students’ Union at the University of Toronto. Part of my job is to organize campaigns and events that are relevant to issues students are dealing with. In the last six months, there have been a number of hateful events on campus targeting women and feminists, and these events have been openly endorsed by the University of Toronto administration, citing “freedom of speech.” The group organizing these events is an officially recognized University of Toronto club, the Men’s Issues Awareness Society, and its premise is that men are oppressed in society because of feminism. I protested one of their events and got into a yelling match with one of the men. I left that event feeling infuriated in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time. I decided that instead of purely being reactionary and yelling at these bozos, I should put energy into organizing the kind of spaces I want to see more of. So I got in touch with GB and Caroline, asked if they would like to give a talk on feminism and zine-making, and they said they would be happy to.
How long has this idea been in the works?
I got in touch with GB and Caroline in early February. We have really only been organizing the logistical side of this event for 2 months.
What’s your own background in relation to zinemaking and feminism?
I made my first zine in 2009. It was a transcribed conversation between me and a good friend of mine about what it’s like to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and how we’ve learned to deal with our diagnosis in creative and productive ways. In terms of feminism, I was raised in a single-mother home and all of the mentors in my life have been women. Although I only began identifying as a feminist in recent years, I know that I have had a special admiration for motivated, outspoken, daring women my entire life.
Why should people attend this symposium, and what would you say to a shy first-time zinemaker who might want to try this out?
This 3-day symposium is a fantastic way to learn about the history of feminist zines and punk rock in Toronto. It’s a chance to roll up your sleeves and make an entire book from start to finish in one day, and then celebrate the launch of it that same night. It’s a chance to meet wonderful feminists in Toronto and to continue growing the kind of communities we want to see in our city.