Zine Review: All Together

All Together: A Primer for Connecting to Place & Cultivating Ecological Citizenship

Emma Percy, [email protected], emmapercy.com, free

When is the last time you’ve considered communities you are a part of, or what local plant and animal species are indigenous to your area? When was the last time you thought about watershed boundaries? These are just a few topics All Together asks its reader to contemplate, and to my surprise, my answer was: never?

This is more than a zine, it is a learning object that asks you to consider your relationship to your environment and to cultivate possibilities for ecological citizenship. Artist Emma Percy asks readers to consider the invisible systems that bring us our food. I was surprised how little I think about the environment. For example, I have never considered whether the land in Toronto consists of mostly clay, peat, sad, or silt, its pH or nutrient levels, or what our typical annual rainfall is. Normally, I feel like high-fiving myself just for going to the local farmers market. All Together challenges us to strive for more.

I applaud the goal of encouraging a more educated and invested public who will be motivated to exercise their ecological citizenship toward fighting the forces behind climate change. I would also recommend this for educators. Never hectoring, patronizing, or boring, I found this zine totally engaging. Bonus points for the snappy looking cut-and-paste layout and typewritten text. (Chris Landry)