Seawitch # 1
Perzine, Clementine Morrigan, [email protected], clementinemorrigan.com, $3
Trigger warning: zine contains discussion of addiction/alcoholism, PTSD, depression, self-injury, trauma, and child abuse.
Writer Clementine Morrigan’s latest zine, Seawitch, is a diary-like confessional that is isolating and scary but also shameless and unapologetic, and kinda proud. I feel like this is a story about a successful coming-of-age. Or maybe it’s just about survival.
Morrigan starts off by letting us see just what social anxiety feels like. It’s the ability to say it all in your head, but never aloud: “I want to be able to hang out with you.” We see these deep desires that will never been satisfied — these needs that can be conceived within the mind, but remain trapped inside the body.
Throughout the zine she gains momentum; she embraces her queerness, she explores polyamory. She might even have found love. There is hope. “I want to go out dancing. I want to travel. I want to try burlesque.” She is empowered. She is owning it. She prays. There’s good moments. There is a lot of shit as well, but she is going to be okay. (Rekha Tulsiram)