Zines as a tool of resistance, art as social change

It is times like these when we need to create. It is times like these when we need to make art.

Toni Morrisson wrote:

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

When the world is collapsing, rotting – when capitalism is telling us to become suspicious of each other, to harden our hearts – that is when we soften, when we collaborate, when we create.

It is times like these – times of ugly AI art and generic writing, dumbing down content, right-wing rabbit-hole algorithms, and endless influencer advertisement noise – that we must resist!

Resist with our bodies, our hearts, our minds. Resist with our creativity and our art. Step outside capitalist production and living and do things our way.

Zines are a tool of resistance, because they reject market logics and commercialization. Zines are a tool of resistance because they resist the numbing, dopamine-fueled online algorithms.

It is through creating with our minds and bodies that we imagine alternatives. It is through creating together that we build communities.

Zines are political art – and they do these exact things.

Zines urge us to think beyond capitalist modes of living and thinking. Zines urge us to reconnect with our inner worlds and with each other, instead of being (dis)connected to online markets. Zines are analogue, offline freedom.

Angela Davis wrote:

“Art is at the forefront of social change. Art often allows us to grasp what we cannot yet understand. […] Art involves the imagination. And if we believe that revolutions are possible, then we have to be able to imagine different modes of being, different ways of existing in society, different social relations.”

Zines are a tool of resistance! Art is social change!

See you at CUTZINE fest,

– Michaela (CUT COLLECTIVE)