From Echo Zines
May 30, 2025
Here is a little blogpost with some snippets from my life as a zine maker: things I do that are related to zine-making but also other creative things. It’s just a glimpse, a week from my life, only the things I wanted to share. It starts from the Anarchist Bookfair in Ghent (Belgium) on May 17-18th and ends with a mini-tour of my band Lavender Witch on May 23rd-25th. It all happened in the scope of 9 days so it seemed perfect for a little diary blogpost.
After I said I’d be going to the Anarchist Bookfair in my city, the awesome zinester and videographer Dayna Catmothcrow asked me if I would be up for making a vlog or blogpost about it. Dayna regularly films vlogs about zine fests and I love those videos, and being an archivist/documentalist type of person, I thought: why not? Because I’m not a vlogger/filmer of any kind I chose blogging (and I’ll probably write a bit about the bookfair in one of my next zines too). On the first day of the bookfair I made the decision to write a “one week in the life of a zinester” blogpost so it would not only cover the bookfair but some other creative things as well…
May 17th 2025
As I write this, I just got back from the Anarchist Bookfair in Ghent. It’s a yearly event that’s been taking place in Ghent long before I lived here. I think the first edition was in 2001 and the first one that I went to as a visitor was in 2003. This year it was organised at the youth centre JOC Gentbrugge. I’d never been there before but it was easy to reach by public transport (easier than the previous bookfair location) and had some greenery by the water and a playground around the building making it a nice hang-out spot. This bookfair has always been a moment to meet people I haven’t seen in ages again. Sadly though, one of those people, Geert, is no longer with us, and that is a great loss. At the main entrance a beautiful banner was hung on a wall to commemorate him. I didn’t know him very well but he was the kind of person that everyone knew at least a bit and he would always come to say hello and was very sweet and gentle.
In the earlier years of the bookfair I would always go home with huge bags filled with books and zines. I can be a bit more restrained these days because a) I already have a big book collection and b) some of the amazing books I would have otherwise bought at this yearly event I recently found at the queer-feminist bookshop Rokko in Ghent, at previous editions of the bookfair, or while travelling. Some examples of awesome books already in my collection that I saw at the bookfair include: Shy Radicals, Herbalism & State Violence, and Anarchism & Education. A book I did buy today was Warp & Weft: Psycho-emotional Health, Politics and Experiences. I’m very happy it was recommended to me. Like Herbalism & State Violence (and also The Prisoner’s Herbal and Overcoming Burnout), it is published by Active Distribution who sell their books at very affordable prices.
For this year’s bookfair I got to wear the crochet hat with trans flag colours shown above that I finished just in time. I tabled together with Sister Ray Zines who has recently released two brandnew zines. For the occasion we called ourselves the Zine Team. We sat in a corner of the room with a good view on all the other tables. There were anarchist collectives, bookshops, distros, and publishers with publications in several languages: f.e. I spotted and heard Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Catalan, German… The subject matter was very diverse too. From oldschool anarchist texts to new publications about a range of activist subjects as well as the youngest tabler I’ve seen so far with her own table of hand-drawn zines (cuteness highlight of the bookfair!). I saw jigsaw puzzles, shirts, and lots of stickers as well. One table even had a mobile T-shirt printer installed. As always it was felt good to be there. The audience was super nice, chill, and interested and I was happy to chat with some dear friends.
Apart from the friends and the books at the bookfair, I also always look forward to the food. For years (or maybe always?) it has been provided by the cooking collective Kokkerellen. Damn, no one makes hummus, garlic, and lentils sandwiches like them!
May 18th 2025
Today I headed back to the bookfair to table with my zines and I was happy to meet lots of (sometimes unexpected) friends and fellow activists again. As usual my mini-zine This Bunny Kills Fascists was popular, with someone even dragging their friend to my stall to show it to them. Chainsaw Bunny is pleased.
I usually don’t have much spare energy to do anything on the programme apart from tableing and browsing at the bookfair but strangely I was awake enough to go to a round-table talk about printed anarchist publications which was super interesting. It was mostly about street papers and a Brussels-based punk anarchist zine called Crash Test introduced itself too. I only heard about that zine that same morning and it looks just like my cup of tea (it’s in french though, so I’ll have to push myself a little bit to read it). I used to dream about making an anarcha-feminist “muurkrant”, like a street paper but one that you stick on a wall like a poster. I still love the idea of spreading ideas this way. Towards the end of the talk I had to leave because my internal battery had ran out and I couldn’t concentrate anymore. I’d love to chat or brainstorm some more about the importance and advantages of paper media though, especially for activists. This has been one of my special interests for a long time now.
I really appreciate the bookfair taking place over two days since last year. It makes it feel more community-focused, like the multiple-day Ladyfests or zine fests I used to and still go to. You have a chance to get to know people a bit better by spending more time together and delve deeper into the themes and atmosphere. It’s always hard to leave such events though. So my friend H and I were stubbornly the last ones to clear and pack my table and we then hung out a bit longer outside until we got hungry.
May 19th 2025
After a full and fun weekend I was in need of some naps. So today I rested and started reading the zines I received/traded/bought at the bookfair:
I also spent some time making zines: I’m at the stage of typing the #19th issue of my zine Witches’ Brew. Still a lot of writing and editing work… and after that comes layouting, drawing, printing, binding… I really enjoy doing the layout manually, with a gluestick and scissors, so I’m looking forward to getting the text finished and cutting it all up.
May 20th 2025
Today I posted zines for a webshop order and this is a good occasion to show off some beautiful mail-art from recent trades that wonderful zinesters from all around the world have sent me:
Wednesday May 21st 2025
Today was the last rehearsal with my band Lavender Witch before our mini-tour in the weekend. It will also be the first gigs with our new bassist/singer Maïlys. I’m excited and curious to see what it will be like to play together with our new line-up. The rehearsals have been really fun with her. She adds a lot of enthusiasm and joy and I also can’t wait to write new songs together.
Thursday May 22nd 2025
Today I worked in my bullet journal. I’m very much behind with filling in the memory keeping pages of the past few months but I already planned ahead by doing the layout and decoration for the June spreads. This is very relaxing and fun. Those binder clip hacks were taken from a video by Sea Lemon.
Friday May 23rd 2025
Today, Lavender Witch played in Brussels at the brewery/bar Drinkdrink together with the UK indie-grunge band Grandma’s House. Drinkdrink is located in an industrial zone, in a building that looks a bit like a garage or storage space from the outside. With the “garage”door open and the daylight shining in, it felt like an outdoors gig which I enjoyed a lot. The stage was very small though so I had to be careful not to poke my band mates with my guitar and headbanging had to be restricted a bit too to avoid kicking over my mic stand.
We have recently printed Lavender Witch shirts, thanks to the awesome design skills and work of Jérôme of the art/zine/print collective Chocs et Ennui & bassist in Krötale. Thank you!!! The shirts were super popular and we got super nice responses to the gig too (like the sweet person complimenting my lyrics).
Saturday May 24th 2025
Day 2 of the mini-tour and we’re driving all the way to Verdun in France! We played together with Ludwig Von 88, a french leftist punk-ska-reggae band who threw a huge party with confetti, fireworks, giant balloons, costumes, and very danceable music. We were honoured to support them and got nice responses from the audience again, like some people who drove from far, not just to see Ludwig Von 88 but us as well. The space, a giant youth centre, felt very welcoming and professional but also punk.
More photos from our gig here.
Sunday May 25th 2025
After checking out of our wonderful sleeping place – an old renovated temple/church (!) – we explored Verdun, took photos of beautiful buildings like proper tourists, and admired plants we stumbled upon (not only lavender but also lamb’s ear which is apparently called “rabbit’s ear” (oreille de lapin) in french and “donkey ear” (ezelsoor) in dutch). And then it was time to head back home…
Also, I didn’t mention it yet but omg I spotted so many little free libraries in those 9 days! The house-shaped orange-blue one is from Brussels, on the way to Drinkdrink, the red phonebox is from Verdun, the one with the “enjoy a book” sign is in a Belgian train station, and the yellow clock is at a bookbinding workshop near the venue of the Anarchist Bookfair. We drove past another one but I wasn’t fast enough to take a photo. Next time I see one, I should leave some zines inside.
I hope you enjoyed this little blogpost! I’d like to write more similar things in zines soon.
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