Our favorite thing about zines is how accessible they are as an art form. Some sharpies and a photocopier, and anyone can publish and distribute their art. The distribution of zines via mail also allowed for communities to grow across huge distances.
Keeping SZF accessible is our #1 priority. This means enabling folks to table regardless of their financial means or experience, making sure we are COVID-cautious and a safe event for immuno-compromised community members, and working with new zinesters to make sure that SZF is a fun and exciting event to table at, whether it’s someone’s first time showing their art to others or their fiftieth.
2. Inclusivity
Because of their accessibility, zines have long been a voice (internally and externally) for marginalized and niche communities. SZF strives continually to ensure that a diverse range of voices are platformed and tabled at our events, including and especially those who have been historically marginalized due to race, gender, sexuality, disability status, age, or religion. (If you have ideas of how to reach a community we should be hearing more from, please let us know!) Bigotry is not welcome at SZF, and anyone spreading hate will never be welcome to table and will be asked to leave.
3. Creativity
The world can be harsh. It isn’t what it should be. We, as a community and as people, owe it to ourselves to put our ideas into the world — to think about the way we want the world to be, and to act to make our ideas into reality. That’s what makes us human, and is the only thing that’s ever pushed the world closer to how it ought to be, even by the tiniest amount. We want to encourage everyone to put their thoughts into the world and into dialogue with their community. The only reason SZF exists is because we thought it ought to, and we decided to do something about that.
MAKE SOMETHING, TODAY!!
Who We Are
Sophie Amity Debs (she/her) is Seattle’s favorite polymath, if math was “doing a bunch of random shit for transgender people.” Sophie was inspired to throw SZF after moving up here and missing the amazing San Francisco Zine Fest, which many years ago she made her first ever zine 16 hours beforehand. She now takes much longer to make new projects, and you can find her work at the front table of SZF, if she saved enough ink to print off copies because instead of blowing it all on posters again this year.
Briar (he/him) Briar has a habit of saying yes to DIY projects, multi-media miscellany, and opportunities for 30-40 tables. He was inspired by Sophie’s vision for a local, accessible event and Seattle’s own ZAPP collection to do anything possible to foster opportunities for sharing local zines, even if it took 40-50 tables. You can find him working on an alleged cooking zine, posting, postering, and anywhere you might see 50-60 tables.
Outside of SZF, he’s likely up to some kind of audio/video post-production, and helping small organizations tell stories, with or without tables. He’s only played Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Fighters, and Sonic Shuffle.
Together, Sophie and Briar are also half the team behind the Seattle Trans Underground Film Festival, which we created in part because we loved working together to make SZF happen and decided to keep doing it!
