As an activist involved in sustainability and other campus movements, Coco Rhum ’24 is always looking for new ways to educate and engage people. For that reason, she’s exploring an interest in zines—self-published, small-circulation magazines that often provide a platform for voices that might not be heard otherwise.
With roots stretching back to abolitionist papers in the 1830s, zines gained ground as alternative media during the 1950s and 1960s. They’re typically printed through inexpensive means, like photocopying, but some modern zines are also distributed digitally. A zine can be produced as a single issue or as part of an ongoing series, and the structure can range from journalistic to literary to abstract.
“Zines have a long history of being countercultural publications,” Rhum says. “They allow for a certain freedom and subversiveness that doesn’t normally happen in the mainstream publishing industry.”
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