This is the road trip issue of the zine “about size and ethnicity”, and it starts off with a mediation on the problems that large women encounter when they travel. It is serious, but Joanna is not without her sense of humour. “Note to all fat travelers,” she writes. “When in New York avoid the Sugar Hill Hostel, their hand-made!!! bunk beds offer little reassurance when trying to negotiate a 200 lbs + booty onto the upper bunk.” What follows from that opening essay are an engaging array of rants, collages and snarky captions to photos such as “Jennifer, a young account-to-be relaxing with a cool Cosmopolitan Martini in the area formerly known as Little Italy now overrun by expensive restaurants and yuppie clientele.” My favourite piece in this zine is reprinted in this issue of bp, and it is a less ardent, simple listing of all the places Joanna has lived, a mediation on, as she puts it, “Immigration as Travel: The Ultimate Adventure?” (Hal Niedzviecki)
zine, #3, Joanna Pawelkiewicz, $1, 158 Spadina Road, Toronto, ON, M5R 2T8